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Zebulon B. Vance
and
"The Scattered Nation"
Overleaf:
Vance in U. S. Senate, ca. 1880.
Courtesy N. C. Division of Archives and History.
Zebulon B.Vance
and
The Scattered Nation
MAURICE A. WEINSTEIN
Editor
The Wildacres Press
Charlotte, N. C.
1995
All Rights Reserved
Published May, 1995
Published by
The Wildacres Press
Charlotte, N. C.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 95-60697
International Standard Book Number:
isbn 0-9646363-0-1
Design by Jim Billingsley
Printed Letterpress in the United States of America
by Heritage Printers, Inc.
Charlotte, N. C.
Dedicated to the memory of
I. D. BLUMENTHAL
philanthropist, creator of humanitarian institutions
and devotee of Zebulon B. Vance.
Acknowledgments
Although I have been interested in the life and accom-
plishments of Zebulon B. Vance for many years, it was at
the suggestion of Herman Blumenthal, chairman of the
Blumenthal Foundation, that I decided to perform the re-
search and preparation of this work. I am grateful for his
encouragement from the inception and along the way to
completion.
I thank John B. Boles, Managing Editor of the Jour-
nal of Southern History for permission to republish "Zeb-
ulon B. Vance and the Scattered Nation" by Selig Adler.
(The Journal of Southern History, Vol. VII, August 1941.
No. 3.)
A debt of gratitude is due Dr. Irving J. Edelman for his
assistance in preparation of the bibliography.
A special measure of gratitude is extended to my long-
time secretary, Joan O. Garner, for her diligent typing of
the manuscript.
I am grateful to Mary Norton Kratt, eminent Charlotte
historian, for her invaluable advice.
I am also thankful to Mildred H. Irvin for her reading
the manuscript and her important suggestions.
I express appreciation to the staff of the North Carolina
Division of Archives and History for their courteous as-
sistance.
Maurice A. Weinstein
Editor
December 1994
vii
Preface
\^f making many books there
is no end" (Ecclesiastes 12: 12 ) . The proliferation of books
has been a common practice for over two millennia. For a
book to be meaningful, however, it should be of literary-
worth, satisfy a need and fill a void. I am convinced that this
volume meets all these criteria.
Zebulon B. Vance is North Carolina's most renowned
statesman, and 1994 is the 100th anniversary of his demise.
It is regrettable that few people today recognize his name,
let alone his achievements. It would, therefore, be most ap-
propriate that his memory be honored at this time with a
biographical sketch of his life, depicting his accomplish-
ments and impact on North Carolina and the country.
A magnificent orator, Vance has been acclaimed for
"The Scattered Nation," a speech he wrote that is regarded
as the finest and greatest oration of his career. A master-
piece, it includes the contributions of the Jewish people and
an impassioned plea that they be befriended. Last published
in 1928, the speech is included in this volume so that it may
be preserved for posterity.
Why did Vance, born in a log cabin in the North Caro-
lina mountains, involved in many pursuits, prepare "The
Scattered Nation" and deliver it throughout the United
States over a period of 15 to 20 years? This phenomenon
fascinated a Professor of History at the University of Buf-
falo, Selig Adler, who researched this perplexing question.
His findings are presented in an article published in the
• ix •
ZEBULON B. VANCE
Journal of Southern History in August 1941 and is also
included in this publication.
The memory of Vance would have faded wholly into ob-
livion were it not for Asheville, North Carolina, which had
dedicated a towering monument in the center of the city to
him and annually conducts a memorial ceremony on his
birthday. A museum containing his memorabilia is located
nearby.
In Charlotte, where he had practiced law for 10 years,
the city had established a Vance Park and named a street
and school for him. They, however, no longer exist.
The only memorials that do remain are a hard-to-find
marker where his home stood, a bust of him at the Char-
lotte-Mecklenburg Library, and a small bronze plaque at
the First Presbyterian Church on the pew where he and his
family sat.
It is our fervent hope that by means of this book the
memory of this distinguished statesman will remain alive
and that he will take his rightful place in the annals of our
country. Zebulon B. Vance deserves to be remembered, rev-
ered and commemorated.
Herman Blumenthal
Chairman
The Blumenthal Foundation
■
x •
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Preface by Herman Blumenthal ix
Chronology xv
Chapter One:
Zebulon B. Vance, a Renowned Statesman
by Maurice A. Weinstein, Editor
1
A
Eloquence
4
B
Heritage
8
C
Political Career Launched
10
D
The War Governor
13
E
"The Scattered Nation"
19
F
Jewish Tributes
23
G
Governor Again
25
H
United States Senator
27
I
Outpouring of Grief
29
Chapter Two:
"Zebulon Vance and The Scattered Nation"
bySeligAdler 35
Chapter Three:
"The Scattered Nation"
by Zebulon B . Vance 61
xi
• ZEBULON B. VANCE •
Appendices
A Excerpts from Memorial Service at
Charlotte, North Carolina, April 16,
1894 97
B Excerpts from Memorial Service at
Charlotte, North Carolina, April 18,
1894 100
C Excerpts from eulogy delivered by
Senator Matt W. Ransom in United
States Senate, January 19, 1895
105
D Excerpts from address by Richard H.
Battle at dedication of statue of
Zebulon B. Vance on Capitol Square
in Raleigh, August 22, 1900
114
E Excerpts from address by Locke Craig,
Governor of North Carolina, at
dedication of statue of Zebulon B.
Vance in Statuary Hall in the Capitol
in Washington in 1916 123
F Excerpts from address by R. L. Taylor,
Governor of Tennessee at dedication
of monument at Asheville, May 10,
1898. ISO
Selected Bibliography 133
Index 135
xii
Illustrations
following page 14
A Birthplace of Vance — Reems
Creek Valley
B Vance at age 28
C First law office
D Vance as colonel in Confederate
Army
E Desk on which "The Scattered
Nation" was prepared — in
Vance Museum, Reems Creek
Valley
F Vance monument —
Asheville, N. C.
G Vance at age 36
H Vance residence, Charlotte, N. C.
I Vance statue — Capitol Square,
Raleigh, N. C.
J Vance statue — Statuary Hall,
Washington, D. C.
xiii
Chronology
ZEBULON B. VANCE
1830-1894
1830 May 13, Born at Reems Creek Valley
1851 Attended University of North Carolina
185 1 Admitted to bar at Asheville
1853 Married to Harriett Newall Espy
1854 Elected to North Carolina House of Commons
1858 Elected to United States House of
Representatives
1859 Reelected to United States House of
Representatives
1861 Colonel in Confederate Army
1862 Elected Governor of North Carolina
1864 Reelected Governor of North Carolina
1866—76 Practiced law in Charlotte
1868—73 Estimated time of first delivery of
"The Scattered Nation"
1876 Reelected Governor of North Carolina
1878 Harriett Newall Espy Vance passed away
1879 Elected to United States Senate
1880 Married to Florence Steele Martin
1885 Reelected to United States Senate
1891 Reelected to United States Senate
1894 April 14, Zebulon B. Vance passed away
xv
Zebulon B.Vance,
a Renowned
Statesman
• CHAPTER ONE
Zebulon B.Vance,
a Renowned
Statesman
by Maurice A. Weinstein, Editor
''''Every thing that men do or think
concerns the satisfaction of the needs they feel
or the escape from pain"
Albert Einstein
This is the story of Zebulon
Baird Vance, who was born in a log cabin in the moun-
tains of North Carolina and rose to become a renowned
statesman.
He was twice elected to the United States House of Rep-
resentatives, three times as Governor of North Carolina,
and three times to the United States Senate.
The focus of this work is Zebulon B. Vance and his ora-
tion: "The Scattered Nation." However, to limit this book
to that aspect alone would deprive the reader of the wide
scope of the unique career of Vance and his relationship
to "The Scattered Nation.'" Accordingly, this chapter will
review the life of Vance, not only for that purpose, but
• 3 .
• ZEBULON B. VANCE •
also to revive the memory of the man and his outstanding
achievements.
Eloquence
Vance was a dynamic and powerful speaker; before juries
and other audiences, he was a spellbinder. His speeches,
both impromptu and prepared, were replete with humor,
wit and wisdom. He possessed and used a bottomless well
of anecdotes and jokes— not to entertain, but to illustrate
his concepts and to make his points. He was a master of
sarcasm, satire, and ridicule. Especially in campaigns in
the mountains, he was known to tell off-color jokes.
Vance's impressive appearance enhanced his oratorical
ability. In 1916, at the unveiling of the statue of Vance in
Statuary Hall of the United States Capitol, the Governor
of North Carolina, Locke Craig, remarked:
His personal appearance was unique. He did not look
like other men. No man who saw him ever forgot him.
His magnetism charmed with a peculiar and indescrib-
able power. When you looked upon him, you knew that
you beheld the lion-hearted leader of men.1
Vance practiced law in Charlotte, North Carolina, for
ten years, from 1866 to 1876. Charlotte was a small town;
the 1860 census was 2,265, and in 1870, 4,473.
When Vance appeared in trials in the old courthouse on
South Try on Street in Charlotte, the stores on the Square
closed; no need to be open, almost everyone was at the
courthouse, or trying to get in, to hear Zeb Vance. Vance
usually convinced juries of the righteousness of his causes.
There was an important exception: In Statesville he de-
fended Tom Dooley (Dula) in a murder case arising out
of a love triangle; Vance served without fee because Dooley
was destitute and a Civil War veteran. Dooley was found
guilty and sentenced to be hanged. The trial sparked the
.4-
. RENOWNED STATESMAN •
famous ballad: "Hang down your head, Tom Dooley, hang
down your head and cry."
Judge David Schenck, who presided over trials in which
Vance appeared, wrote in his diary that Vance was:
... an orator of unexampled power both in the power
of his imagination and the force of his language; he han-
dles pathos with delicate tenderness and wields the fierce-
ness of satire with piercing sharpness. But as a humorist
he has no equal, perhaps on the continent.2
In 1864, while War Governor, Vance went to Virginia
on a speaking tour to visit the North Carolina troops of
General Robert E. Lee's Army. Vance was honored with
a review of the brigades; General Lee and Vance rode side
by side. After the review, Vance addressed the troops. Gen-
eral J.E.B. Stuart, commander of the cavalry, after the
speech said: "If the test of eloquence is its effect, this speech
was the most eloquent ever delivered."3 Dr. Edward War-
ren, who accompanied Vance, later wrote: "I heard Gen-
eral Lee remark that Governor Vance's visit to the army
has been equivalent to its reinforcement by fifty thousand
men."4 No doubt, Vance delivered a stirring address; the
troops were deeply moved and captivated. Obviously, Gen-
erals Stuart and Lee were carried away and engaged in
hyperbole to express their enthusiasm.
Vance's manner of speech was florid and ornate in keep-
ing with the style of 19th century oratory, as you will note
in "The Scattered Nation." Vance's thoughts flowed freely:
"To keep pace with his rapid flow of thoughts, Vance spoke
with lightning-like speed."5
I have heard it said that the rules for a good speech are:
"Be sincere, be brief and be seated." Vance was always
sincere, but he frequently violated the other two admoni-
tions.
There were times when he spoke for two and a half
hours. Today, if a speaker exceeds an hour, he would grad-
• 5 •
• ZEBULON B. VANCE •
ually lose his audience, except for those who are asleep.
Not so with Vance: He always held the attention of his
audience throughout.
At the present time, high governmental officials retain
speechwriters to prepare their speeches. Not Vance. He
always prepared his lectures and without help from others
—frequently by candlelight or oil lamp. Of course, his ex-
temporaneous speeches needed no preparation and they
were outstanding.
Vance's articulateness is well established. What about
the substance, content and ideas expressed in his lectures?
A fortuitous event often turns or determines the course of
a person's life. In Vance's life, that event occurred on No-
vember 6, 1827, three years before he was born: a duel
between Dr. Robert B. Vance of Asheville, an uncle of
Zeb Vance, and Samuel P. Carson of Morganton, a Con-
gressman.
In 1823, Carson had encouraged Dr. Vance to run for
Congress against Felix Walker— who had been one of
Daniel Boone's companions. Dr. Vance won by one vote.
After one term Carson decided to run for Congress against
Dr. Vance and defeated him. During the campaign the can-
didates hurled insults against each other causing intense
antagonism. Carson challenged Dr. Vance to a duel and
the offer was accepted. Duels were unlawful in North Caro-
lina, so they held the event across the South Carolina line
at Saluda Gap— a marker designates the place.
Among those present was Davy Crockett ("Davy, Davy
Crockett, king of the wild frontier"), the coach who had
been instructing Carson in the use of the pistol. On the
signal, Carson fired and the bullet struck Dr. Vance. It was
fatal.
Prior to the duel, Dr. Vance prepared his will in which
he bequeathed his library of about five hundred volumes
of classical literature to Zeb Vance's father, David Vance,
. 6 •
• RENOWNED STATESMAN •
II. Among the books were the works of Tacitus, Cicero,
Scott, Swift, Pope, Byron, Shakespeare, Milton and the
Bible.6 Zeb Vance's mother read to her children from the
books, and, inspired by her, Zeb became a diligent reader.
He remembered much of what he read, and that retention
is revealed in his lectures as you will see in "The Scattered
Nation." He was a student throughout his life. "He became
a man who knew the use and power of words. Words were
his tools; words sent him off to leadership and greatness.
They made him an orator, and where could they have
sprung from except these books?"7
Illustrative of his erudition is his commencement address
at Wake Forest College in 1872, while he was practicing
law in Charlotte :
Nor can we rely upon the spread of learning and in-
telligence, to preserve the free institutions of our fathers
in all their vigor and purity. History is a wonderful de-
stroyer of theories, and this fond one of ours is likely to
be overthrown by facts. If intelligence and virtue were
synonymous, our confidence in it would be justified. But
educated men are no more virtuous than ignorance is
always wicked. And I believe that educated bad men, in
all ages, have done more hurt to the world than all the
ignorance that has ever existed. How many nations have
lost their liberties through the wickedness of the learned?
The brightest age of Athenian eloquence, philosophy and
art, made the least resistance to corruption. The noblest
orator, and the greatest poet of the Augustan age of
Roman letters vied in the glorification of despotism and
venality. The polite reign of Charles II rotted England
to the core, and laid her liberties so low that only revolu-
tion and a change of dynasty could revive them. . . .8
In 1868, Vance delivered the eulogy at a memorial cere-
mony for David L. Swain, a dear friend of Vance, a for-
mer governor and long-time President of the University of
North Carolina.
• ZEBULON B. VANCE •
Vance was offered the presidency of the University of
North Carolina, but respectfully declined.
Davidson College and the University of North Carolina
awarded Vance honorary doctorate degrees.
Heritage
Zebulon B. Vance came from a long lineage of patriots and
public servants. His grandfather, David Vance I, was a
Lieutenant Colonel in the Revolutionary War; he fought
in battles at Kings Mountain, Brandywine, Germantown
and Valley Forge. David I was of Scotch-Irish descent.
In 1775 he married Priscilla Brank, who lived in Burke
County and was of German descent. After the war, Vance I
acquired land along Reems Creek Valley near Asheville,
and there he built a cabin of pine logs. David I and Pris-
cilla had eight children— one wonders after seeing the re-
stored log cabin, how they crammed eight children into
that log cabin. One of the children was David II, who be-
came the father of Zebulon B. Vance.
David II married Mira Margaret Baird in 1825. They
also had eight children and lived in the same log cabin. Her
father was Zebulon Baird— that's where Zebulon B. Vance
obtained his first and middle names. Zebulon Vance was
born in 1830, at the time Andrew Jackson was President of
the United States. Zebulon Baird cleared the land that be-
came Asheville. David II enlisted in the War of 1812, but
before he was called to duty, the war was over.
Vance's brother, Robert B. Vance, was a Brigadier Gen-
eral in the Confederate Army. An uncle, Dr. Robert Brank
Vance, was a member of the United States House of Rep-
resentatives.
Frontis W. Johnston, Professor of History at Davidson
College, summarized the heritage of Zebulon B. Vance:
Above all there was received from both sides of the
family a sense of public duty and a tradition of pub-
.8-
• RENOWNED STATESMAN •
lie service. His immediate ancestors had served thirteen
terms in the North Carolina House of Commons and six
terms in the North Carolina Senate. His two grandfathers
had served for more than a score of years as the first clerks
of court of their respective counties. In addition, his ances-
tors had enlisted in both wars in which his country had
been involved at the time of his own birth; his uncle
had been a United States Congressman; his brother was
to serve eight years as clerk of court and six terms in
the United States House of Representatives, as well as
shorter terms in the State Legislature and in the United
States Treasury Department. The career of Zebulon Baird
Vance in both war and public office must have appeared
to him but a fulfillment of family tradition.9
An integral part of Vance's heritage was the beauty of
the mountains that surrounded Reems Creek Valley. In
reading "The Scattered Nation," you will note descriptions
of the mountains to illustrate points.
In 1850 he studied law under John W. Woodfin, an
Asheville lawyer. Afterwards, he wrote to David L. Swain,
President of the University of North Carolina, a former
Governor and a former sweetheart of Vance's mother, to
request a loan of $200 to help pay for one year at the Uni-
versity. The loan was granted, and he was admitted to the
University. He arrived at Chapel Hill in July, 1851, where
he engaged in general studies and law. Swain became a
lifelong friend and advisor to Vance. Swain taught consti-
tutional, international and moral law, and Vance was one
of his students. The teachings of Swain influenced Vance
throughout his career— especially in the area of individual
freedom. Close friendships were also formed with Kemp P.
Battle and his brother, Richard H. Battle, both of whom
played important roles in Vance's career. In 1900 Richard
H. Battle delivered the address at the unveiling of the statue
of Vance on the capitol grounds in Raleigh.
In 1851 Vance was admitted to the bar, and entered the
practice of law in Asheville. In 1852 he was elected solicitor
. 9 •
• ZEBULON B. VANCE •
of Buncombe County; his opponent was Augustus Merri-
man— later to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
of North Carolina and United States Senator. Vance was
on his way to launching a career that would lead to his be-
coming a renowned statesman.
Political Career Launched
In 1854, Vance raised his political ambition beyond the
horizon of the mountains. Vance was a Whig because of
this party's pro-Union propensities, which coincided with
his firm beliefs. The Democratic Party tended to encourage
states' rights. He announced as a candidate for the House
of Commons— a holdover name from the House of Com-
mons in England— the name was changed to the House of
Representatives in 1868. His opponent, Daniel Reynolds,
claimed that Vance was too young for the office he sought;
Vance was then 24. Vance retorted: "I must admit I am
young, but it is not my fault. My parents did not consult
me as to the time when I should be born. All I can do is to
promise to try to do better next time."10 He should have
added: "That's something that time will remedy." He was
elected.
Next, Vance ran for the North Carolina Senate and was
defeated by David Coleman. In 1857 Vance was a candidate
for election to the United States House of Representatives
against the prominent Thomas Lanier Clingman, a long-
time member of the House of Representatives. Again,
Vance went down to defeat.
In 1858, Clingman was appointed to the United States
Senate. A special election was held to fill the vacancy.
Vance was undaunted, and at the age of twenty-eight an-
nounced that he would seek election to the United States
House of Representatives as a member of the American
Know-Nothing Party. His opponent was William W. Av-
ery for the Democratic Party, a prominent leader from
. 10-
. RENOWNED STATESMAN •
Burke County. There was an intense campaign over the
fifteen counties, including Buncombe County, in the dis-
trict. The campaign "set the mountains on fire.11 At one
stop, Vance arrived with a crowd of men leaping and danc-
ing around him as he played the fiddle."12 Vance condemned
the secessionist proclivity of the Democrats and declared
vehemently for the Union. Vance was victorious.
In December 1858, Vance went to Washington to enter
the United States House of Representatives— a long way
from the log cabin on Reems Creek. One of his colleagues
wrote about Vance that he was "strong in integrity, won-
drous in vitality . . . and a strict Federalist after an intense
union pattern. His voice was never heard at Washington
for disunion."13
He criticized the treasury deficit: "As we are in debt,
and spending more than our income, and as our income is
derived principally from the tariff, we have to do one of
three things: either raise the income, lower our expenses,
or walk into the insolvent court. . . ."u It sounds like the
current days.
In 1859, Vance ran for reelection to the United States
House of Representatives; this time in behalf of the Whig
Party. His opponent was David Coleman for the Dem-
ocratic Party, the man who defeated Vance when he ran
for the North Carolina Senate. Vance defeated Coleman
by a margin of seventeen hundred votes. The Congress
convened on December 5, 1859.
The dark clouds of secession and war were on the hori-
zon; there was a mounting controversy between the ab-
olitionists of the North and the secessionists of the South.
In Congress and in North Carolina, Vance spoke out for
union and against secession. In 1860, a Whig convention
was held in Salisbury at which Vance delivered two stir-
ring pro-Union addresses. Richard H. Battle wrote that
he ". . . held up to their gaze a dark picture of the horrors
to follow secession and disunion, all became subject to his
. 11 •
• ZEBU LON B. VANCE •
magnetism . . . and when he closed, the streets of the town
and the hills around long reverberated with their enthusi-
astic shouts."15 Up to this time Vance was principally
known in the mountains; now, his fame was growing across
North Carolina. Among those present was William A. Gra-
ham, a former governor, senator and Secretary of the Navy;
he became a long-time friend and advisor of Vance.
On November 30, 1860, two members of Congress from
South Carolina, Boyce and Ashmore, addressed a crowd in
Raleigh in which they favored secession. Afterwards, across
the street Vance delivered a speech that lasted two hours.
Boyce and Ashmore said that if the South seceded, it would
have the protection of England. To this Vance responded
that "it would be a protection that our forefathers had
waged a seven years war to escape." His humble grand-
father, Vance said, "had shed his blood to escape this pro-
tection, and now his grandson was called upon to fight to
regain it."16
Abraham Lincoln was elected President on November 5,
1860, and inaugurated on March 4, 1861. Lincoln's elec-
tion precipitated the secession of the states in the lower
South; South Carolina left the Union on December 20,
1860. On April 13, 1861, Fort Sumter, at Charleston, was
bombarded and surrendered to the Confederacy.
When Fort Sumter was fired upon and President Lin-
coln called upon North Carolina to furnish seventy-five
thousand soldiers for the Union forces (declined by Gov-
ernor John W. Ellis), Vance changed his mind. Here are
his words:
For myself, I will say that I was canvassing for the
Union with all my strength; I was addressing a large and
excited crowd, large numbers of whom were armed, and
literally had my arm extended upward in pleading for
peace and the Union of our Fathers, when the tele-
graphic news was announced of the firing on Sumter and
[the] President's call for seventy-five thousand volunteers.
.12-
. RENOWNED STATESMAN •
When my hand came down from that impassioned gesti-
culation, it fell slowly and sadly by the side of a Secession-
ist. I immediately, with altered voice and manner, called
upon the assembled multitude to volunteer, not to fight
against but for South Carolina.17
Secession by North Carolina was becoming inevitable;
on April 15, 1861, Governor Ellis ordered the occupation
of Forts Macon, Caswell and Johnston— the coastal forti-
fications.18 "On April 20, a company of Charlotte Greys
seized the mint, and ten days later, . . . the arsenal [at Fay-
etteville] surrendered. . . ,19
On May 20, 1861, a convention created by the General
Assembly of North Carolina voted for secession, and also
ratified the Provisional Constitution of the Confederate
States of America. North Carolina was the last State to join
the Confederacy.
It was necessary for Vance to leave Congress because his
State was no longer one of the states of the United States
of America.
Vance organized a company of volunteers, and, as its
Captain, marched to war. Later he was promoted to Colonel
of the Twenty-Sixth North Carolina Regiment. He led his
troops into battle at New Bern and Malvern Hill. "He
became something of a hero throughout the State. . . ."20
The War Governor
August 6, 1862, was the date to elect a new Governor of
North Carolina. William W. Holden, editor of The Weekly
Standard in Raleigh organized the Conservative Party— a
new one. Holden proposed and supported Vance for Gov-
ernor. Augustus S. Merriman visited the editor of The
Fayetteville Observer, a prominent newspaper, and secured
an endorsement for Vance. There was no party convention
that selected a candidate; Vance was selected by consensus
of many leaders and newspapers.
. 13 •
• ZEBULON B . VANCE •
The other candidate was William Johnston of Charlotte,
a railroad official, running under the banner of the Confed-
erate party. The election was unique: There was no cam-
paigning, no speeches, no platforms, no public gatherings,
no paid advertisements and no managers. Vance relied upon
his record, his fame, his diligence and his reputation for
truthfulness. The campaigning was by newspapers sup-
porting one candidate or the other. Vance remained in com-
mand of his regiment at Petersburg; he made an announce-
ment that "a true man should ... be willing to serve wher-
ever the public voice may assign him. ... I should consider
it the crowning glory of my life to be placed in a position
where I could most advance the interests and honor of
North Carolina."21
Vance at the age of thirty-two was elected Governor of
North Carolina by a landslide.
The band of the 26th Regiment came to the inauguration
and played while the crowd gathered, including the "Gov-
ernor Vance's Inauguration March" composed for the occa-
sion. Vance, as usual, delivered a stirring address. He prom-
ised a vigorous prosecution of the war, and further declared
"to hold the helm during ... the great storm; to manage
. . . public liabilities; to search out the talent and worth of
the country and to bring it into the service of the State; and
to clothe and organize our troops and to do justice to merit
in the field."22
Celebrating an inauguration was one thing, but con-
fronting tumultuous times, in the midst of a war, was
another and a perplexing matter. The Union forces occu-
pied Roanoke Island and New Bern and threatened further
advances.
Soon after the inauguration, Lee's army suffered defeat
and retreat at the battle of Sharpsburg-Antietam, with
thousands of dead and wounded. Vance called upon Sur-
geon General Warren to collect surgical and medical sup-
plies; then both were off to Virginia to help the returning
. 14.
B. Zebulon B. Vance, age 28. Elected to U.S.
House of Representatives. Courtesy of N.C.
Division of Archives and History.
C. Vance's first law office in Asheville, 1851. From
Dowd, Clement, Life of Vance, (Charlotte, 1897).
D. Three Confederate colonels: (L to R) J. R. Lane, H. K. Burgwin
and Zebulon B. Vance in 1861. Painting by W. G. Randall. Courtesy
N.C. Division of Archives and History.
E. Vance's desk located at Vance Museum in Reems Creek Valley. On
this desk, "The Scattered Nation" was prepared at Charlotte. Photogra-
pher: Randall Cox.
F. Vance Monument at Pack Square in Asheville (1898). Photog-
rapher: Randall Cox.
H. Vance's Charlotte residence, 1866-1876. From Dowd, Clement,
Life of Vance (Charlotte, 1897).
J. Statue of Vance in Statuary Hall in the Capitol, Washington
veiled 1916).
• RENOWNED STATESMAN •
wounded soldiers— Warren to give medical treatment and
Vance to cheer them on.
There was a shortage of clothing, leather and food for
the soldiers, and the wives and children of the troops were
impoverished. Vance, in a proclamation, called upon the
people to donate shoes, socks, blankets, shirts and trousers
for the troops. There was a dire scarcity of salt required
for curing meat; Vance established saltworks along the
coast to derive salt from the sea. He arranged to provide
food and other needs for destitute widows, wives and chil-
dren of the soldiers.
The vessels of the Union patrolled the sea at the entrance
to Wilmington, the only port in North Carolina, in an effort
to blockade ship traffic to and from Wilmington. Upon
Vance's call, the General Assembly provided funds to pur-
chase a ship— the name was changed to Ad-Vance— and
also interests in other vessels to run the blockade. The ships
were successful in running the blockade. They transported
cotton and tobacco to Bermuda and then to England in ex-
change for food, medicine, shoes, clothing, machinery and
munitions. The blockade running was crucial to the sur-
vival of the Confederacy and to North Carolina. After
twelve voyages, the Ad- Vance was captured on January 15,
1865. Fort Fisher was captured by Union forces— as a result
Wilmington fell and blockade running ceased, a severe
blow to the Confederacy and to North Carolina.
In 1862, when the Norfolk Navy yard was endangered
by the approach of the Federal forces, Vance arranged for
it to be moved to Charlotte, where it operated for three years
on East Trade Street at the railroad— a sign "Confederate
States Navy yard 1862-1865" is at that location. It did not
build ships; it built fittings, propellers and armament.23
Vance was a fervent protector of individual rights. The
Confederate Congress had authorized President Davis to
suspend the writ of habeas corpus. That is a treasured pro-
cedure inherited from England— the writ is an order that
.15.
ZEBU LON B. VANCE
a prisoner be brought before a court to determine the le-
gality of his detention. Confederate authorities in North
Carolina had been imprisoning citizens upon suspicion that
they were disloyal to the Confederacy. Vance said if North
Carolinians were deprived of the right of habeas corpus,
"he would issue a proclamation recalling the North Caro-
lina soldiers from Virginia, and call out the State's militia
to protect the liberties of the citizens."24
Later in a speech, Vance remarked: "The laws were
heard amidst the roar of cannon. No man within the juris-
diction of the State of North Carolina was denied the priv-
ilege of the writ of habeas corpus, the right of trial by jury,
or the equal protection of the laws, as provided by our Con-
stitution and the Bill of Rights."25
In addition to the complaint about habeas corpus, Vance
complained frequently to Jefferson Davis— some commun-
ications were strident. Carl Sandburg, famous poet and bi-
ographer, wrote: "The break between Vance and the Davis
Government at Richmond ran deep, the feeling bitter."26
Lincoln was urged to reach out to Vance and was told,
Sandburg wrote, "Vance would welcome reunion of the
States and peace compatible with honor. . . . Whether Lin-
coln . . . convinced Vance that peace efforts would be worth-
while was not clear."27
Nevertheless, Vance wrote Davis urging peace negotia-
tions. To send peace proposals was, Davis responded, "to
invite insult and contumely, and to subject ourselves to in-
dignity without the slightest chance of being listened to,"
and further, "I fear much, from the tenor of the news I
receive from North Carolina, that an attempt will be made
by some bad men to inaugurate movements which must be
considered as equivalent to aid and comfort to the enemy,
and which all patriots should combine to put down at any
cost."28
William W. Holden, the avid supporter of the election
of Vance in 1862 and editor of The Weekly Standard,
. 16 •
. RENOWNED STATESMAN •
launched a movement for North Carolina to enter into
negotiations with the Union for a separate peace. Vance
favored peace, but only in coordination with the Confed-
eracy. Vance wrote that the seeking of a separate peace
would "steep the name of North Carolina in infamy . . ." and
that he would ". . . see Holden in hell . . . before he would
consent to a separate peace."29
Vance decided to run for a second term. Holden an-
nounced as Vance's opponent. The election was held on
August 4, 1864— the governor's term then was two years.
Vance campaigned throughout the State— a speech in Wil-
mington lasted for two and one-half hours. As part of his
response to Holden's demand for a separate peace, Vance
remarked that he told the troops to "fight till hell froze
over and then fight on the ice."30 Vance defeated Holden
overwhelmingly. Vance's formidable speaking ability won
the day.
As previously noted, on January 15, 1865, Fort Fisher
fell and thereafter Wilmington was occupied by Union
troops. This was an ominous event for North Carolina
and the Confederacy. Later, the Union forces under the
command of General William Tecumseh Sherman con-
quered the eastern counties and were approaching Raleigh
— 110,000 men strong. The subjugation of the State Cap-
itol was imminent. Vance transferred records and military
equipment to the western part of the State. Vance had pre-
viously sent his family to Statesville for greater security. On
April 1 1 , Vance received a message that General Lee had
surrendered to Grant at Appomattox. On April 12 Vance
sent his close friends and former governors, Graham and
Swain, as emissaries to General Sherman for terms under
which Vance could remain in Raleigh to conduct affairs of
government and to request protection of Raleigh. His emis-
saries were delayed in returning, and at midnight Vance
departed Raleigh on horseback to General Robert Hoke's
encampment— a Confederate camp. Jefferson Davis invited
.17-
• ZEBULON B. VANCE •
Vance to meet him in Greensboro where the Confederate
Cabinet was meeting; when Vance arrived in Greensboro
he learned that Davis and his cabinet had moved to Char-
lotte on April 19. Vance followed and met with Davis at the
Bank of North Carolina at 122 South Tryon Street. Davis
suggested that the remains of the Confederate Army re-
treat beyond the Mississippi, and proposed that Vance ac-
company him with the North Carolina troops. Davis was
discouraged and this idea was dropped. While in Charlotte,
Davis received word that Abraham Lincoln had been assas-
sinated. Vance bid Davis farewell, and after further stops
and meetings, proceeded to Statesville to be with his family.
The Confederate Army in North Carolina, under the
command of General Joseph E. Johnston, on April 18 sur-
rendered to General Sherman.
Sherman and his army arrived in Raleigh on April 13.
The Confederate flag on the Capitol was lowered and the
stars and stripes were hoisted. Sherman made the Gov-
ernor's mansion his temporary headquarters. His troops
marched up Fayetteville Street and Sherman watched them
in review at the Capitol.31
Professor Frontis W. Johnston wrote about Vance:
His career as War Governor is more responsible than
any other thing for the fact that North Carolina has loved,
idolized, and rewarded no other man in her history as she
has Zebulon Baird Vance.32
On May 11, 1865, General Ulysses S. Grant issued an
order to Major General J. M. Schofield, Commander of
Union Forces in North Carolina: "By direction of the Pres-
ident [Andrew Johnson] you will at once arrest Zebulon B.
Vance, late Rebel Governor of North Carolina."
On May 13, 1865, Vance's home at Statesville was sur-
rounded by about three hundred Federal cavalry and Vance
was placed under arrest. Vance was escorted to the train
station at Salisbury and then to Washington where he was
.18-
. RENOWNED STATESMAN •
incarcerated in the Old Capitol Prison. He was not charged
with any criminal violation, just taken to jail. Vance was
granted a parole and released from prison on July 6, 1865,
on condition that he remain in North Carolina ( unless per-
mission granted to travel further) subject to President
Johnson's further orders. Later President Johnson, a na-
tive of North Carolina and acquaintance of Vance, issued
a full pardon.
"The Scattered Nation"
"The Scattered Nation" was acclaimed as Vance's greatest
lecture.
The thrust of "The Scattered Nation" was an ardent ap-
peal for friendship with the Jewish people. Vance said:
". . . there remains among us an unreasonable prejudice
of which I am heartily ashamed. Our toleration will not be
complete until we put it away. . . ." And further: "... I con-
sider it a grave reproach not only to us, but to all Christen-
dom that such injustice is permitted anywhere."33
The date on which "The Scattered Nation" was first de-
livered and the number of years over which it was delivered
appear to be uncertain. Franklin Ray Shirley, Professor at
Wake Forest University, in 1962, wrote: "Vance's greatest
lecture, 'The Scattered Nation' was delivered for the first
time on February 13, 1874. ... It seems certain that over a
period of fifteen years 'The Scattered Nation' was delivered
hundreds of times and in almost every important city in the
United States.34
On the other hand, Selig Adler found "internal evidence
within" that the speech would indicate that it was written
between 1868 and 1873, and that it was delivered over
"fifteen to twenty years."
Vance prepared "The Scattered Nation" while practic-
ing law in Charlotte; his roll-top desk is on display at the
Vance Museum at Reems Creek Valley; on the desk is a
. 19 •
ZEBULON B. VANCE
sign stating that "The Scattered Nation" was prepared on
this desk.
The Charlotte and South Carolina Railroad arrived in
Charlotte in 1852, and the Vance family lived along the
tracks at 6th Street— with the porch facing the railroad.
Vance and his wife, Harriett, and their four sons, Charles,
David, Zebulon, Jr. and Thomas, attended the First Pres-
byterian Church on West Trade Street— a bronze plaque,
with his name on it, is still on their pew. He was not an ad-
herent of the Presbyterian Church until later in life.
As noted previously, Vance was famous for using anec-
dotes and humor, but in "The Scattered Nation" he was
completely serious and solemn.
Of course, during Vance's days, there was no television,
radio nor motion-picture theaters. Lyceums were popular—
a hall in which lectures and concerts were presented. Vance
drew crowds for the speech because of his fame as a lec-
turer, and the title of the lecture aroused curiosity.
In the speech he revealed his scholarship, and his keen
knowledge of Jewish history and the Bible; and he referred
to the writings of Tacitus, Socrates, Josephus, Macaulay
and Machiavelli. As a busy lawyer, it is remarkable that he
found time to prepare this outstanding speech.
Important questions arise: What inspired Vance to extol
Judaism and the Jews when others were defaming or silent?
What motivated Vance to prepare and deliver "The Scat-
tered Nation"? What impelled Vance to travel to many dis-
tant cities, and deliver the oration to numerous audiences?
These queries arose in the mind of Dr. Selig Adler, Distin-
guished Professor of History at the University of Buffalo.
Over fifty years ago, in 1939, he came to North Carolina to
search for the answers. Adler engaged in extensive re-
search: he visited Charlotte, Asheville, Statesville, Raleigh,
and Chapel Hill; he conferred with people, still living, who
knew Vance; he read old newspaper clippings at the Uni-
versity of North Carolina, and he read much of Vance's
.20-
. RENOWNED STATESMAN •
correspondence at the archives of the North Carolina Divi-
sion of Archives and History. He then wrote an essay that
was published in The Journal of Southern History in 1941
entitled "Zebulon B. Vance and The Scattered Nation.' "35
His article is republished in this book as Chapter Two.
Adler answers the above questions in a fascinating essay.
Vance in his oration said the Jews are to be found ". . .
in almost all of the cities of the globe " What caused this
scattering from which the speech takes its title? Vance says
the Jewish people suffered "in the fiercest fires of human
cruelty, though heated seven times in the furnace of re-
ligious bigotry. . . ,"36 The migrations from Europe were
principally caused by that "cruelty" and "religious bigotry."
Then, what caused the "cruelty" and the "religious big-
otry"?
The theology of Christianity taught that the destruction
of the Second Temple by Rome in the year 70 and the
dispersal of the Jews were punishment for rejection of the
divinity of Jesus; that Christianity was the fulfillment of
Judaism; that the Church is the one true chosen people of
God; that the Church was the new Israel; that Christianity
was heir to the Covenant between God and Abraham; and
that Jews were identified with the devil and their syna-
gogues were the abodes of satan.
Clark M. Williamson, Professor at the Christian The-
ological Seminary, wrote: "A torrent of anti-Judaism flows
through the channels of Christianity."37
Words and concepts have serious consequences; in Eu-
rope, especially in medieval days, they resulted in forced
conversions of Jews, denigrations, persecutions, book burn-
ings, defamations, restrictions, the Inquisition and murder.
In the Middle Ages, the Dominicans and the Franciscans
were in the vanguard in anti-Jewish and anti-Judaism ac-
tivity.
. . . Dominican and Franciscan friars directed and over-
saw virtually all of the anti- Jewish activities of the Chris-
• 21 .
• ZEBULON B. VANCE •
tian clergy in the West. As inquisitors, missionaries, dis-
putants, polemicists, scholars, and itinerant preachers,
mendicants engaged in concerted efforts to undermine the
religious freedom and physical security of the medieval
Jewish community . . . and who actively promoted hatred
among the laity of Western Christendom.38
Many Jews fled, scattered by impoverishment and op-
pression to places with a measure of opportunity and free-
dom. A greater number were expelled as church and states
sought to homogenize their populations— uniformity of re-
ligious thought. For examples : England expelled the Jews
in 1290 and they were not permitted to return until 1650
—during the days of Oliver Cromwell. In an enormous ex-
pulsion, Spain drove the Jews out in 1492; and most of
the countries of Central and Western Europe did the same.
It was "an ethnic and religious cleansing."
Beginning in 1880, during Vance's time, there were
pogroms in Russia (officially encouraged massacres and
persecutions). Vance refers to this in a later version of
"The Scattered Nation." The oppression grew intense in
Eastern Europe, causing substantial migration— "scatter-
ing"—to the United States, Canada, Argentina, South Af-
rica, Australia and other places in the world.
This sordid history has been depicted by scholars, both
Christian and Jewish, in many volumes— here we present
a summary.39 Also, many scholars have referred to the
events of this history as precursors of the Holocaust. James
Parkes, the British clergyman and historian has written:
"This hatred and denigration have a quite clear and precise
historical origin. They arise from Christian preaching and
teaching from the time of the bitter controversies of the
first century in which the two religions separated from each
other. From that time up to today there has been an un-
broken line which culminates in the massacre in our own
day of six million Jews."40
Preceding and after the Holocaust, Jews were further
• 22 •
. RENOWNED STATESMAN •
"scattered." Before the Holocaust, many escaped the Nazi
regime by going to what later became the State of Israel,
and some escaped during the Holocaust. Many were unable
to reach Israel because the British imposed a blockade of
Israel to please the Arabs; some ended up in distant places,
as far away as Shanghai.
There was another substantial "scattering" when about
seven hundred thousand Jews fled or were expelled from
the Arab countries after the State of Israel defeated the
Arabs who committed aggression against Israel in 1948,
1967 and 1973. Islam taught that Jews and Christians
were to be humiliated and made subservient; they were
called dhimmis. Therefore, the loss of the Arab-Israel wars
at the hands of those to be humiliated caused shock and
trauma in the Arab world; the status of Jews became ex-
tremely precarious.
In 1965, the Vatican Council II declared in Nostra
Aetate (In Our Time) that the Church "deplores hatred,
persecutions, and displays of anti-Semitism directed against
Jews at any time from any source." And further: "Jews
should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God "
Many Protestant denominations have issued similar lau-
datory statements.
During recent years, about five hundred thousand Jews
have migrated from the States of the former Soviet Union
to the State of Israel. This emigration has been caused by
continued hostility toward Jews, enhanced by economic
adversity and political turmoil. So, the migrations have
continued for over a century after Vance's "The Scattered
Nation."
Jewish Tributes
Vance's "The Scattered Nation" and his delivery of the
speech in many cities was unique. This made a profound
impression on the Jewish community of North Carolina
• 23 •
• ZEBULON B. VANCE •
and elsewhere. They expressed their admiration for his
kind words in many ways.
Selig Adler in his article, published in 1941, relates:
"Each May 13, Vance's birthday, the Asheville representa-
tives of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and B'nai
B'rith sponsor a program around the Vance monument."
That statement was made by Adler over fifty years ago.
Inquiry was recently made by this writer, and it was de-
termined that the ceremony has continued to the present
day, except that during the past few years it has been held
at Vance's birthplace at Reems Creek Valley.
Adler also talks of the visit of Nathan Straus of New
York, who visited Asheville and placed a wreath at the
Vance obelisk. Straus was a merchandising magnate (R.H.
Macy & Company) and prolific philanthropist. He provided
funds for erection of a wrought iron fence around the base
of the monument, and established an endowment for a
wreath to be placed at the Vance monument every year.
In 1926 the Central Conference of American Rabbis held
a convention in Asheville. They assembled at Riverside
Cemetery and placed a wreath on Vance's grave.41
Glenn Tucker wrote: "When he delivered in Chapel
Hill ... his most famous lecture, 'The Scattered Nation,' a
number of North Carolina Jews presented him with a gold-
headed cane."42
The State of North Carolina built and maintains a mu-
seum adjacent to the log cabin in which Vance was born
at Reems Creek Valley. In it are memorabilia of Vance's
life such as his pistol and sword. Among the items is a
silver-headed cane inscribed: "Presented to Zebulon B.
Vance by the Jewish youth of Wilmington."
The Calvary Episcopal Church established in 1859, at
Fletcher, North Carolina,43 has sponsored the erection of
monuments on the church grounds in honor and memory
of outstanding southern personalities. Among them are
.24-
. RENOWNED STATESMAN •
Francis Scott Key, James Whitcomb Riley, and Stephen
C. Foster. On October 14, 1928, a monument was ded-
icated to the memory of Zebulon B. Vance under the pa-
tronage of B'nai B'rith of Asheville. Nathan Straus sent a
message: "As a Southerner and in common with all Ameri-
can Jews I join in the tribute of gratitude and affection to
the memory of North Carolina's great Senator and war
governor. . . . 'The Scattered Nation' will never be for-
gotten."
The principal speaker was Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of
New York, the preeminent rabbi in America at the time.
Wise said: "Mine is a people which enshrines memories
older than those of any other people . . . Senator Vance, not
by any act of ours but by his own imperishable word has
enshrined his name on the roll of the unforgettable. ... It
must be that the passion of human brotherhood inspired
the words of Vance."44
Governor Again
While Vance was practicing law in Charlotte, the conven-
tion of the Democratic Party, on June 14, 1876, nominated
him to be Governor of North Carolina for the third time. In
the interim, the Conservative Party had changed its name
to the Democratic Party.
Upon his return from the convention in Raleigh a cele-
bration was held in Charlotte :
Handbills announcing a meeting to be held in Inde-
pendence Square were printed and distributed throughout
the city. Long before the arrival of the 9:20 p.m. train,
which was bringing Vance from Raleigh, tar barrels were
set on fire and throngs of people gathered in the streets
waiting to hear what their distinguished townsman had
to say about his nomination. A large delegation was wait-
ing at the depot when the train pulled in, and the popular
candidate was hurried into a waiting carriage, which was
.25 •
• ZEBULON B. VANCE •
pulled by four grey horses to the Square. As the carriage
came in sight a band began playing, and shouts of "hur-
rah for Vance" echoed through the air.
Amid thunderous applause, Vance mounted the plat-
form which was illuminated by blazing tar barrels. He
was introduced to the crowd as "North Carolina's favorite
son," the tribune of the people, Zebulon B. Vance.45
Vance's opponent, representing the Republican Party,
was Thomas Settle, a former member of the North Caro-
lina Supreme Court and a formidable candidate. The elec-
tion was referred to as "the battle of the giants."46 It was
an extensive, hard-fought campaign.
Vance "spoke in Burgaw in the afternoon for two and a
half hours, and then taking an extra train for Wilmington
. . . he again spoke for two and a half hours."47 In the three
months of the campaign, he delivered sixty-nine speeches in
sixty-five counties.48 Many of the addresses by Vance were
in debates with Settle.
As usual Vance's lectures were replete with humor; for
example, when jesting about revenue officers he said they
"could lie down and drink out of a branch and tell if there
was a still five miles up it, and could look at a man's track
and tell whether he was toting a quart of whiskey or a two
gallon jug."49
Vance won the election by a vote of 118,000 to Settle's
104,000. He delivered his third inaugural address as Gov-
ernor of North Carolina on January 1, 1877— it implicitly
marked the end of the era of Reconstruction.
During the campaign, Vance advocated the supremacy
of the white race, and that "this supremacy would never
pass to alien blood with his consent;"50 that position was the
prevalent view in the populace. Vance's point of view, in
that respect, was ameliorated by his deep concern for im-
provement of education— universal education.
Soon after the inauguration, he delivered a message to
the General Assembly calling for equal education for both
.26-
. RENOWNED STATESMAN •
races— then, equal meant separate. Vance urged the legisla-
ture to establish two normal schools, one for African-
American teachers, and one for the white race, to improve
abilities of the teachers. He said, "It is impossible for the
blind to lead the blind." And further that a school for the
"education of colored teachers, the want of which is more
deeply felt by the black race even than the white." The
General Assembly complied, and the Fayetteville Colored
Normal School and the white school at Chapel Hill were
established.
In 1878, in an address to an African- American audience,
he said that although he had opposed emancipation, he
would "respect all the rights the laws had invested in them."
This, he said, "I cheerfully do, always have done, and al-
ways shall do."51
In 1886, while a United States Senator, in a speech in
Boston, Vance remarked: ". . . slavery has been forever
abolished, no longer to tarnish the fair fame of this great
free Republic."52
Vance was a keen advocate of vocational education-
training for industry and agriculture. He referred to a lib-
eral arts education as "ornamental education." His theme,
in speeches, was "providing an ornamental education to the
exclusion of a practical one might prove disastrous to the
state."53
From time to time, during this term as Governor, Vance
continued to deliver "The Scattered Nation."
At the end of 1878, the General Assembly elected Vance
to the United States Senate by acclamation to succeed Sen-
ator A. S. Merriman whose term had expired.54 On March
4, 1879, he reported to Washington and became a United
States Senator.
United States Senator
In the Senate, Vance was a diligent student of the issues
of the times; his speeches were well-prepared and erudite.
.27-
ZEBULON B. VANCE
As in the past, his concepts were illustrated with jokes and
anecdotes, accompanied by wisdom.
Reminiscent of the days in Charlotte when crowds came
to hear him in court, in the Senate, when it was known in
advance that he would speak, the galleries were full.
The Philadelphia Times reported: . . the fascination
of his fun is in its spontaneity, its originality and the in-
exhaustible fecundity of the imagination which generates
it. His mind is a vast reservoir of humor. . . ,"55
He was swift with repartee. Listen to this: "I heard your
speech," a colleague remarked tauntingly one day, "but it
went in one ear and out the other."
"Nothing to stop it," was Vance's quick reply.56
Vance was heard to remark: "Mirth does for the soul
what sleep does for the body."57
During recesses, he accepted invitations to address au-
diences all over the nation: college commencements, boards
of trade, historical societies, and veterans organizations.
He also continued to deliver "The Scattered Nation."
In 1882, Vance returned to Charlotte to introduce Sen-
ator Thomas F. Bayard of Delaware, a leader in the Senate,
as the principal speaker on the anniversary of the Meck-
lenburg Declaration of Independence. Vance, in part, said,
"We have met to worship once again at the shrine of Ameri-
can liberty, upon the spot where it was born."58
In 1892, Vance returned again to Charlotte to deliver an
address. The Charlotte Observer reported: ". . . and such
an expression of love, affection and esteem was never shown
to any son of North Carolina at any time, or anywhere, as
was expressed in the great ovation over Vance." Vance
commented, in part: "It makes me glad at heart to see such
an audience in Mecklenburg, and to make you a speech is
as tempting to me as a good dinner would be to a real hun-
gry man."59
In a speech in 1880 in opposition to the Republican's
proposed budget, he said: "If I thought the Republican
.28 •
. RENOWNED STATESMAN •
Party were standing upon the brink of a precipice, beneath
which seethed those cold waters of oblivion, instead of
warning them, I pledge you my word I would try to induce
them to step over the edge; in fact, I might lend them a
push." [laughter]60
Among Vance's chief concerns were tariff, silver and the
civil service. He favored elimination of tariff on commod-
ities purchased by all the people.61 President Grover Cleve-
land, in 1885, advocated the cessation of silver coinage.
Vance vehemently favored bimetallism, continuation of sil-
ver coinage. On the civil service issue, Vance advocated
repeal of the Civil Service Act so that when a President is
elected with a change in party there be no limitation on
patronage. Vance remarked: "I believe most earnestly that
parties are indispensable to the existence of liberty, and
that government by the party is the only way in which there
can be government by the people."62
Inspired by his love for the mountains of North Carolina
where he was born and reared, he bought and improved a
Victorian mansion near Black Mountain, about 22 miles
from Asheville. He called it Gombroon. It was here that
he relaxed when the Senate was not in session and when he
was not delivering speeches.
He was reelected to the United States Senate in 1885,
and again in 1891.
During his terms in the Senate the Presidents were
Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Chester A. Ar-
thur, Grover Cleveland, and Benjamin Harrison.
While in the Senate, Vance was a magnificent represen-
tative of North Carolina, was looked upon as the spokesman
of the South and was deeply concerned about the welfare
of the nation.
Outpouring of Grief
Vance passed away on April 14, 1894, in his third term
in the United States Senate. There was an enormous out-
.29-
ZEBULON B. VANCE
pouring of grief. A memorial ceremony held in Congress
was attended by President Grover Cleveland, Vice Pres-
ident Adlai Stevenson (grandfather of Adlai Stevenson,
who ran for President in 1952 and 1956 ), the Cabinet, the
Supreme Court, diplomats and members of the Senate and
House.
The funeral train, with delegations from the Senate and
House of Representatives abroad, traveled to Raleigh where
a procession escorted the casket to the Capitol. The hearse
was pulled by four black horses. It was most appropriate to
visit the Capitol where Vance had served the people of
North Carolina for three terms as Governor. Then, en route
to Asheville, the funeral train stopped at Durham and
Greensboro where throngs awaited, bands played sacred
music, choirs sang hymns, flags were flown at half mast,
buildings were draped in black and church bells tolled. "At
Asheville, a procession of ten thousand people, both mil-
itary and civilian, escorted the casket to Riverside Cemetery
for the final rites and interment."63
Across North Carolina, in cities and towns, memorial
services were held. In Charlotte, a memorial ceremony was
held on the day before the funeral and another a day after;
prominent Charlotte citizens delivered eulogies. Reports
of each of the memorial ceremonies in Charlotte are in
Appendices A and B.64
However, the accolades did not cease with the funer-
al; the plaudits and commemorations continued for many
years.
On January 19, 1895, an additional memorial ceremony
was held in the United States Senate. Nine Senators de-
livered eulogies; the principal one was delivered by Senator
Matt W. Ransom, Vance's colleague from North Carolina.
It was a magnificent address. Excerpts from the Ransom
eulogy are in Appendix C.65
On August 22, 1900, a bronze statue of Vance was
.30-
. RENOWNED STATESMAN ■
erected on the grounds of the Capitol at Raleigh. He stands
robust, and, appropriately, with a hand on a book; and on
each side are quotations from his speeches engraved in
bronze. Excerpts from dedicatory address by Kemp H.
Battle are in Appendix D.66
In 1916, a bronze statue of Vance was unveiled in Stat-
uary Hall of the Capitol in Washington; the sculptor was
the famous Gutzan Borglum. In 1864 Congress enacted a
law inviting each State to furnish statues, not exceeding
two of its citizens "illustrious for their historic renown."
The North Carolina Legislature unanimously authorized
a statue of Vance to be placed in Statuary Hall. In the cere-
monies, addresses were delivered in Statuary Hall and also
in the Senate and House of Representatives. Among the
stirring addresses was one by Locke Craig, Governor of
North Carolina. Excerpts from his speech are in Appen-
dix E.67
In 1898 a tall obelisk, in memory of Vance, was dedicated
on Pack Square in Asheville. Excerpts from the address by
R. L. Taylor, Governor of Tennessee, are in Appendix F.68
The appendices are important : They present excerpts of
speeches by Vance's distinguished colleagues and are re-
plete with historical events in the life of Vance.
The General Assembly selected another of its illustrious
citizens to be honored with a statue in Statuary Hall:
Charles B. Aycock, Governor from 1901 to 1905, who was
also famous for encouraging education.
Throughout North Carolina, towns and cities named
streets and schools in memory of Vance. Vance County was
named in honor of him during his lifetime. At the turn of
the century, "more sons, dogs, horses and mules were
named Zeb than any other name, largely in affectionate
tribute to Zebulon Baird Vance, the most beloved man ever
elected to public office in the State."69
The people of North Carolina mourned and wept for
• 31 •
• ZEBU LON B. VANCE •
their renowned statesman who had been their magnificent
leader, in war and peace, for one third of a century. Above
all, the people knew that Zebulon B. Vance was a compas-
sionate statesman who always spoke the truth.
NOTES TO CHAPTER ONE
Eloquence
1. From speech by Locke Craig, Governor of North Carolina at the
dedication of statue of Zebulon B. Vance in Statuary Hall, U.S. Capitol,
1916.
2. Schenck diary, November 2, 1874, University of North Carolina.
3. Ashe, Samuel, editor, History of North Carolina II (Greensboro,
1907), p. 880.
4. Warren, Edward, A Doctor's Experiences in Three Continents,
(Baltimore, 1885), p. 314.
5. Shirley, Franklin Ray, Zebulon Vance, Tarheel Spokesman (Char-
lotte, 1962), p. 139.
6. Ibid., p. 3.
7. Tucker, Glenn, Zeb Vance, Champion of Personal Freedom (In-
dianapolis, 1965), p. 21.
8. Address by Z. B. Vance to graduating class of Wake Forest Col-
lege (Raleigh, 1872), p. 15.
Heritage
9. Johnston, Frontis W., Zebulon B. Vance Letters (State Depart-
ment of Archives and History, Raleigh, 1963), p. xx.
Political Career Launched
10. Address of Richard H. Battle in Literary and Historical Activ-
ities in North Carolina (Raleigh, 1907), p. 381.
11. Ibid.,?. 383.
12. Ibid.,?. 383.
13. Johnston, p. xxxvi.
14. Dowd, Clement, Life of Zebulon Vance (Charlotte, 1897) , p. 44.
15. Tucker, p. 88.
16. Shirley, p. 22.
17. Tucker, p. 105.
18. Barrett, John G., The Civil War in North Carolina (Chapel
Hill, 1963), p. 12.
19. Ibid., p. 12.
20. Johnston, p. xi.
The War Governor
21. Tucker, p. 149.
22. Raleigh Register, September 10, 1862.
.32-
• RENOWNED STATESMAN •
23. Tucker, p. 179.
24. Letter of protest to Jefferson Davis, July 6, 1863. Vance Letter
Book Vol. I, p. 317.
25. Vance address to Grand Army of the Republic, Boston, Decem-
ber 8, 1876.Dowd,p.453.
26. Sandburg, Carl, Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, Vol. II
(New York, 1939), p. 392.
27. Ibid., Vol. II, p. 393.
28. Ibid., Vol. Ill, p. 156.
29. Letter - Vance to David Swain, Raleigh, January 2, 1864, Vance
Papers.
30. Johnston, p. Ixvii.
31. Spencer, Cornelia P., The Last Ninety Days of the War in North
Carolina (New York, 1866), p. 138.
32. Johnston, p. lxxiii.
"The Scattered Nation"
33. "The Scattered Nation" — Chapter Three, p. 61.
34. Shirley, p. 122.
35. The Southern Journal of History, Vol. VIII, No. 3. August, 1941.
Chapter Two in this volume, p. 35.
36. Vance, Chapter Three, p. 61.
37. Williamson, Clark M., Has God Rejected His People? Anti-Juda-
ism in the Christian Church (Nashville, 1982), p. 100.
38. Cohen, Jeremy, The Friars and the Jews (Ithaca, 1982), p. 13.
39. See: Berger, David, ed., History and Hate (Philadelphia, 1986) .
Williamson, Clark, Has God Rejected His People? (Nashville,
1982).
Littell, Franklin H., The Crucifixion of the Jews (New York,
1975).
Eckardt, A. Roy, Elder and Younger Brothers (New York, 1973).
Boksor, Ben Zion, Judaism and the Christian Predicament (New
York, 1967).
Isaac, Jules, The Teaching of Contempt (New York, 1964).
40. Parkes, James, The Conflict of Church and Synagogue (Cleve-
land, 1961).
Jewish Tributes
41. Central Conference of American Rabbis Year Book, Vol. 36
(1926), p. 17.
42. Tucker, p. 454.
43. In his article, Chapter Two, Selig Adler wrote that this event
took place in Asheville: That was an error. The event took place in
Fletcher, North Carolina.
44. The Asheville Times, October 15, 1928, p. 12.
Governor Again
45. Shirley, p. 72. Quoted from The Charlotte Democrat of June 19,
1876.
46. Dowd, p. 146.
47. Vance Papers, Raleigh. Clipping Book, p. 2351.
.33 •
ZEBULON B. VANCE
48. Dowd,p. 161.
49. Ibid., p. 150.
50. Raleigh Sentinel, July 15, 1876.
51. Shirley, p. 88.
52. Dowd, p. 453.
53. Shirley, pp. 90-91.
54. Amendment XVII to the United States Constitution, adopted
May 31, 1913, provided for direct popular election of United States
Senators.
United States Senator
55. Raleigh Observer, April 9, 1879.
56. Tucker, p. 466.
57. Ibid.,-p.465.
58. Tucker, pp. 466-467.
59. Dowd, pp. 256-257.
60. Dowd, p. 238.
61. Until 1913, tariffs were the principal sources of revenue. The
XVI Amendment to the Constitution authorized income taxes.
62. Cong. Record, 49th Congress, 1st Session, p. 2945.
Outpouring of Grief
63. Dowd, p. 316.
64. See appendix for reports of the two memorial ceremonies in Char-
lotte, pp. 97 and 100.
65. See appendix for excerpts from eulogy by Senator Matt W. Ran-
som, p. 105.
66. See appendix for excerpts from dedicatory address by Richard H.
Battle, p. 114.
67. See appendix for excerpts from address by Governor Locke Craig,
p. 123.
68. See appendix for excerpts from address by R. L. Taylor, Gov-
ernor of Tennessee, p. 130.
69. Claiborne, Jack, and William Price, editors, Discovering North
Carolina, Essay by Richard Walser (Chapel Hill, 1991), p. 132.
.34-
Zebulon Vance
and
"The Scattered Nation"
•CHAPTER TWO-
Zebulon Vance
and
"The Scattered Nation"
BY SELIG ADLER
19 4 1
The American Civil War
raised many men from obscurity to state and national prom-
inence. Almost every state, North and South, had its lat-
ter nineteenth-century hero. With the exception of those
whose roles were so important as to incorporate their deeds
into the everyday knowledge of the average citizen, they
have been forgotten. There is, however, one of this group
whose memory still lives within his own state, whose stories
are still told, whose name is still meaningful. That person
is Zebulon Baird Vance, who followed the cursus honorum
in North Carolina from county attorney to the General As-
sembly to two terms in the lower house of Congress, from
a colonel in the Confederate army to a great southern war
governor. Eleven years after Appomattox he returned to the
governor's chair at Raleigh, according to a southern ver-
dict, to deliver "his people of the Old North State from the
bonds of oppression and from the Egypt of reconstruction."1
From the governorship Vance went to the Senate where he
died in his third elective term.
.37-
• ZEBULON B. VANCE •
Although Vance has been dead forty-seven years, his
memory is still alive. His monument on Capitol Square,
Raleigh, is the only statue ever erected by public funds in
the history of the state.2 In 1916 his name was chosen to
represent North Carolina in the National Hall of Statuary
in Washington. The newspapers still mention him; his
jokes are a part of the folklore of the state; intimate knowl-
edge of his doings still persists. The salient facts of Vance's
career and character explain this unusual devotion and
tribute. Born in the mountain country near Asheville in
1830, by his thirtieth birthday Vance was a state-wide fig-
ure serving his second term in Congress. He was an ardent
Unionist at first, but the firing on Fort Sumter led him into
the secessionist camp. In 1862, while gaining a reputation
for gallantry on the field of battle and maintaining unusual
morale with his anecdotes and jokes, he was elected gov-
ernor of the state. As war governor, Vance endeared him-
self forever to his people. He mitigated the horrors of war
by insisting on the precedence of civil law, and stoutly
protected the state from the uncomfortable militarism of
the Confederate government. Despite his differences with
President Jefferson Davis, Vance fought the fight to the
end, leaving Raleigh on the advance of William T. Sher-
man's army in April, 1865. After an unsatisfactory con-
ference with Davis at Charlotte, he surrendered himself to
the Federal forces. General John M. Schofield told him to
proceed to his home at Statesville and there to await further
orders. While in Statesville he made his first intimate ac-
quaintance with the members of a people who treasure his
memory equally with his own kith and kin. To North Caro-
linians he is the incomparable Vance of war and Senate
fame and many jests; to the Jewish people he is the author
of the "Scattered Nation," the one American statesman of
his day who pleaded their cause to the people of the United
States.
Vance arrived in Statesville early in May, 1865. There
• 38 -
SELIG ADLER
and later in Charlotte he came into close contact with a
number of Jewish merchants whose friendship served to
inspire the "Scattered Nation."3 The leading mercantile
establishment of the town was Wallace Brothers and Ste-
phenson. Isaac and David Wallace were typical German-
Jewish immigrants of the mid-century. In 1859, after ped-
dling and keeping store in the vicinity of Bamberg, South
Carolina, they moved to Statesville. From the first they took
a leading part in the affairs of this farming metropolis of
six hundred souls. Their general store was the hub center
of county and trading gossip. They sold supplies to the
farmers, ran a small banking business as an accommoda-
tion, and even included a drug counter. From the handling
of standard home remedies they came upon an idea which
has benefited that section of the state for seventy-five years.
The farmers of Wilkes, Ashe, and Watauga counties had
thus far not capitalized upon the variety of herbs found
in their farmyards. The Wallaces taught them to bring
goldenseal root, ginseng, black haw, and eventually some
six hundred other varieties of roots and herbs into States-
ville in return for merchandise.4 This was the beginning of
a crude drug business which still continues to be a source of
prosperity to the local countryside.
The visits of Vance to the country store are recalled to
this day. There was much about Isaac and David Wallace
to impress the war Governor. They were, in the language
of the present oldest inhabitant of Statesville, the "substan-
tial people of the town," men of integrity and foresight.
They were liberal in their terms to struggling small land-
owners and generous donors to worthwhile causes.5 Realiz-
ing that they were an isolated minority, they were ultracon-
siderate of the feelings of their Gentile neighbors. Their
integrity of character was well appreciated. The minister
of the First Presbyterian Church, which the Vances at-
tended, was the Wallaces' friend. With their neighbors,
the family had struggled through the long war years. A
• 39.
• ZEBU LON B. VANCE •
detachment of Union men foraged the Wallace home dur-
ing Passover, 1865. Failing to find bread, they sampled the
unleavened cakes of the season to whirl them through the
air with the disgruntled comment of "more hard tack."6
This incident occurred shortly before Vance returned to
Statesville under General Schofield's orders.
The Governor was allowed but short respite with his
family. On May 13, 1865, which chanced to be his thirty-
fifth birthday, a squadron of General Hugh J. Kilpatrick's
cavalry surrounded his home, arrested him, and prepared
to take him to Washington. As the railroad and telegraph
lines had been destroyed, Statesville was completely cut off
from the outside world. The Union officer in charge wanted
the Governor to ride horseback thirty-five miles to the rail-
road at Salisbury. There being some question as to the cor-
pulent Zeb's equestrian abilities, a Jewish resident agreed
to drive him by buggy to Salisbury. This man was destined
to become one of the most enterprising and successful men
in the state and was probably the most intimate of Vance's
Jewish friends. He was Samuel Wittkowsky who had been
born in 1835 in Prussian Poland. Arriving in New York
at the age of eighteen with but $3.00 in gold, he had worked
his way upward in various places in the South, and during
the war had been engaged in the manufacture of hats in
Statesville in the firm of Wittkowsky and Saltzgiver. He
had probably long admired Vance, for early in 1865 he sent
him a "black hat of our make."7 Thus on that May day of
1865 the famous war Governor and the immigrant Jew
started out on the long buggy ride to Salisbury surrounded
by two hundred Federal cavalrymen.
Wittkowsky was fond of recalling that ride in later years.
He often told how Vance turned to him, wiped the tears
from his cheeks, and said: "This will not do. I must be a
man, but I am not so much concerned as to what may be in
store for me, but my poor wife and little children —they
have not a cent of money— and my poor State— what indig-
• 40-
nity may be in store for her?"8 As they rode on, however,
Vance's naturally good spirits returned, and by the time
they reached Salisbury he had so charmed the Yankees
with his stories that they spared him the indignity of riding
into town an obvious prisoner. Thus began his intimate
acquaintance with a Jew whose slogan "Push, Pluck and
Perseverance" was to make him a leading and valuable
citizen of Charlotte, a city in which he and Vance were
often to meet.
In Washington, on May 20, 1865, Vance was consigned
to Old Capitol Prison. Vance's efforts to soften the horrors
of war and to care for Federal prisoners soon came to the
attention of the irascible Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stan-
ton. On July 6 the Governor was paroled within the limits
of North Carolina, Stanton saying to him, " 'Upon your
record you stand acquitted.' "9 Vance spent the next six
months in weighing the possibilities of Wilmington and
Charlotte as opportune cities for the practice of law. Con-
fidence in Charlotte's future and absence of serious legal
competition there were responsible for his decision in favor
of that city.
Charlotte had just received its city charter and, in 1866,
boasted of some three thousand inhabitants. Vance was
destined to spend ten years in this pleasant little city which
was to become the most thriving community in the state
before the turn of the century. His genial personality radi-
ated through the streets of the town; his appearances in
court "became gala occasions" during which the populace
suspended business.10 The Attorney's popularity and avail-
ability soon brought him political honors almost without
effort on his part. On November 29, 1870, the legislature
elected him United States senator. The cinders of war,
however, had not yet cooled sufficiently to allow so impor-
tant an ex-Confederate to have a voice in the upper council
of the nation. The Republican Senate refused to seat him,
and he settled down to six more years of the law. When
• 41 •
ZEBU LON B. VANCE
these were over he was to be in public service for the rest
of his life.
Vance's Charlotte years brought him into intimate ac-
quaintance with a number of Jewish merchants. The con-
centration of Jewish stores in the proximity of his law office
afforded opportunities for daily close contact. More than
one good Vance story must have had its first telling in the
"merchantile establishments" which lined the center of the
town. The great majority of Charlotte Jews was of German
origin. They were the young, able, and enterprising part of
German Jewry who probably left Europe because of the
attractions of the New World rather than the persecutions
of the Old. The combination of a good secular education,
nineteenth-century German liberalism, and good business
sense made for solid citizenship. The Jewish community in
Charlotte dated from the early 1850's. "When the railroad
got to town the merchants multiplied," wrote the county
historian. "Ready-made clothing first made its appearance
with the advent of Levi Drucker. The Israelites followed
close on the coming of the railroads. They have proved
amongst our best citizens."11 The small Jewish settlement
took an active part in the war. In 1861 the Jewish women
raised $150 to assist the volunteers and were commended
for their interest.12 The Charlotte Grays marched to war
with E. B. Cohen as first lieutenant, and there was a fair
sprinkling of Jewish names in the muster roll of the First
North Carolina Regiment which was enlisted in Charlotte
in 186 1.13 With the end of the war, Jewish mercantile estab-
lishments multiplied. Vance's Statesville friend, Wittkow-
sky, moved to Charlotte and with Jacob Rintels re-estab-
lished the prewar firm of Wittkowsky and Rintels. The
partners rented a room twenty-one feet square, bought some
old, rough planking, and put up the calico-covered shelving
themselves.14 In the 1880's Wittkowsky turned to pioneer-
ing in the cotton mill industry in the vicinity of Charlotte.
From the sale of cotton mill stock on weekly payment terms
.42-
SELIG ADLER
of twenty-five cents a share, he organized in 1883 the Me-
chanics Perpetual Building and Loan Association, which
is today the second largest organization of its kind in the
state. In his last years Wittkowsky was president of the
North Carolina Building and Loan League, and today he is
recognized as the father of that type of enterprise in the
Upper South. In 1902 the Charlotte News and Times Dem-
ocrat called him the city's most useful citizen although "not
only an adopted citizen of his present home, but a native of
a foreign land."15
Vance, admittedly improvident in his own affairs, ad-
mired Wittkowsky's contributions to the state's enterprises.
But the direct extent of Wittkowsky's influence on Vance's
Jewish interests is conjectural. An estimate of this influ-
ence must be discounted by the fact that Wittkowsky is re-
membered today as an assimilationist with few Jewish
interests. He did, however, state publicly at the time of
Vance's death:
I speak for my race in North Carolina — aye for my
people of the whole Union. The deceased has ever by his
words and writings demonstrated that he was their friend.
His lecture on the Scattered Nation will ever remain green
in the memory of my race, and will be one of the brightest
jewels to his ever liberal, fair and untarnished escutcheon.
And I venture here the assertion that in the history of
North Carolina no Israelite has cast a vote against Z. B.
Vance.16
Samuel Wittkowksy was the most intimate, but not by
any means the only one of Vance's Jewish friends. Strolling
along the sunny streets of downtown Charlotte, stopping to
chat under the awnings or inside the shops, his daily routine
brought him into constant conversation with Jewish mer-
chants. There were Elias and Cohen, Kahnweiler Brothers,
B. Koopman, H. and B. Emanuel, D. Blum, N. Reichen-
berg, S. Frankenthal, and Asher and Company among the
dry goods concerns. The local photographer was a German
.43 •
• ZEBULON B. VANCE •
Jew named Baumgardener. J. Hirshinger was a pioneer in
the manufacture of clothing in the district, and Jonas SchifF
established the first local tannery. A branch of the later
famous Baruch family also resided in Charlotte during
Vance's time. These families almost universally came
South with some capital. They helped stabilize conditions
after the war by putting this much-needed capital into cir-
culation, by furnishing opportunities for employment, and
by opening new fields of endeavor. If the word of older
substantial inhabitants is to be taken, these Jews of Recon-
struction days were a group of men whose liberality, integ-
rity, and honesty made Jews popular and welcome in Char-
lotte. The newspapers of the day frequently carried items
of Jewish news. Vance's Biblical interests stimulated his
study of Jewish history; his firsthand acquaintance with
representative Jews and his natural humanitarianism made
him plead for tolerance. Together, these strains helped to
create the "Scattered Nation."
While Vance's courthouse trials were brightening the
gloomy days of Carpetbag government, a new interest pre-
sented itself. Vance began to capitalize on his natural speak-
ing ability and to accept professional lecture engagements
to supplement his meager income. In the days before the
automobile, motion picture, and radio had brought about
the "Recreational Revolution," the lyceum was still popular.
As early as the campaign of 1860 Vance had been recog-
nized as a stump speaker without peer in the state. During
the war inspirational speeches to General Robert E. Lee's
army made Vance one of the outstanding orators of the
South.17 Vance's style of speaking was peculiarly his own.
His remarkable resourcefulness in adapting himself to
every type of audience by means of local illustrations and
interests, and his keen, sparkling wit have been attributed
to the Norman and Irish blood in his veins. He had an end-
less flow of stories to nail down important points. These
anecdotes were invariably clear and pointed and always il-
• 44 •
lustrative of some larger theme, and he had the rare ability
to go on at almost any length without tiring his audiences.
Yet when he was through, amidst the vigorous applause,
the main points of his speech had been driven home.
As Vance neared forty, matured perhaps by the war and
its aftermath, the bumpkin spellbinder became the success-
ful, serious lecturer. There were two distinct strains in his
character which have not always been recognized. More
than once his most intimate friends made the mistake of
believing that while Vance was an incomparable country
jury lawyer and stump speaker, he could not make a success
of seriousness. Twice he proved them wrong. In the midst
of the Civil War the jocose colonel became the grim, ef-
ficient war governor. In 1879 his friends feared that he
would be a failure in the Senate, that he would amuse the
august body, but would win no respect. Again they were
mistaken. Like Lincoln, Vance was one of the few men who
could successfully combine incessant jocularity with seri-
ousness and get credit for seriousness.
Vance's first important lecture after the war was "The
Duties of Defeat" which he delivered as the commencement
address at the University of North Carolina, June 7, 1866.
He spent much time in careful preparation, and the address
was well received. Soon the Tar Heel orator was speaking
in large lecture halls in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New
Orleans, to county fairs, historical societies, boards of trade,
and graduating classes.18 He spent his evenings at home
and in small-town hotels while on circuit in the careful
preparation of these lectures. With the encouragement of
friends at Chapel Hill, he widened his intellectual horizon
with much reading. By the early 1870's Vance's national
reputation as a platform speaker was firmly established.
He continued to speak in all parts of the country to a great
variety of audiences until interrupted by serious illness five
years before his death. Among his best-known lectures
were "The Demagogue" and "The Humorous Side of Pol-
• 45 •
• ZEBULON B. VANCE •
itics." As the Civil War crystallized into history he put his
intimate knowledge of that conflict to good use and de-
lighted the Yankees of a Grand Army of the Republic post
in Boston with "The Political and Social South During the
War." Another lecture of this type which received consid-
erable notice was "The Last Days of the War in North
Carolina," delivered before the Association of the Mary-
land Line at Baltimore. These speeches were, of course,
written from the southern point of view, but were prepared
with meticulous care and with a surprising amount of at-
tention paid to historical accuracy. Despite his careful ef-
forts, however, Vance's Civil War lectures have long since
been forgotten. His one literary effort destined to survive
dealt with the history of "The Scattered Nation." This fact
requires considerable additional explanation.
Major Clement Dowd, Vance's law partner, close friend,
and official biographer, believed that it was the love of Bib-
lical history which first turned Vance's attention to the
Jews.19 There can be no question that the influence of his
mother and his first wife and the strongly Calvinist sur-
roundings in which he lived account for his unusual ac-
quaintance with and devotion to the "Book of Books." The
interest long antedated all Jewish acquaintances and con-
nections. The mother, Mrs. Margaret Baird Vance, was a
most unusual woman. Although her letters do not reflect
a great deal of formal education, she was steeped in the
knowledge of the Bible and such secular masters as Shake-
speare and Sir Walter Scott. Tradition asserts that Zeb's
intimate knowledge of these works began at his mother's
knee.20 The first Mrs. Vance, born Harriet N. Espy, vir-
tually lived in the pages of the "good book." "Hattie" Vance,
daughter of a Presbyterian minister, guided her entire life
by Calvinist theology. The same "Institutes of the Christian
Religion" which caused James Truslow Adams to call the
Puritans Jews in spirit influenced Mrs. Vance's religion
deeply. Vance lost his mother and wife within a few weeks.
.46 •
• SELIG ADLER •
Both women were eulogized by the North Carolina Pres-
bytery as "mothers in Israel." The same pamphlet went on
to say that God's "promises to Abraham hold good now to
all who share Abraham's faith."21 Vance himself wrote that
Hattie Espy joined her fortunes with his when he was "a
wild & obscure young man."22 She stimulated his interest
in the Bible so that he read it for hours at a time.
Vance's mastery of the Old Testament was said to have
exceeded that of any other layman in the Bible-reading Old
North State. His speeches, writings, and personal corre-
spondence were saturated with Biblical quotations and il-
lustrations. He wrote to the Confederate Secretary of War
that had his undisciplined cavalry been sent as one of the
ten plagues against Pharaoh, " 'he never would have fol-
lowed the children of Israel to the Red Sea. No sir, not an
inch!' "23 The war-torn people of North Carolina were to
Vance "this suffering and much oppressed Israel."24 He
told Tammany Hall after the war that the northern Dem-
ocrats were wandering after "Moabitish women."25 Vance
was not yet a member of the church during his Charlotte
days, but with Hattie and the boys he regularly attended
the First Presbyterian Church. There he listened to the
sermons of Dr. Arnold De Welles Miller. That divine was
so interested in the "people of the book" that one Sunday
a year he invited all Charlotte Hebrews to his church, sat
them in the front pews, and devoted his sermon to the Old
Testament.26 Motivations from this source were not lacking
to attract Vance's attention to the possibilities of a lecture
on the Jewish people.
Besides his devotion to what he would have termed "sa-
cred history," Vance was very much interested in secular
history. Here his interests were divided between the inti-
mate details of the great American conflict in which he had
participated and ancient history. He was a vice-president
of the Southern Historical Society and helped organize a
branch of the association in North Carolina. Unlike so
-47-
• ZEBULON B. VANCE •
many of his contemporaries in historical associations, North
and South, his interests and readings were not confined to
the story of the thirteen colonies and the wars and battles
of the republic. Vance had a broad reading knowledge of,
and acquaintance with, classical history which is readily
apparent in all his works. The "Scattered Nation" shows
the familiarity of its author with Egyptian, Phoenician,
and Carthaginian history. He speaks familiarly of the wor-
ship of Isis and Osiris, Baal and Astarte. From quotations
one concludes that he had read Tacitus and Josephus. He
discusses with ease the Hellenistic influence on Jewish
thought. His other speeches and writings give similar evi-
dence of wide reading and intimate acquaintance with the
broad movements of general history as they were inter-
preted by the best writers of his time. The "Scattered Na-
tion" reveals that Vance had even encountered the advance
guard of the higher Biblical critics. But his general ap-
proach, while rationalistic to some extent, is that of the con-
ventional southern fundamentalist.
Vance's Biblical and historical interests account for the
part of the "Scattered Nation" interpreting ancient Jewish
history as he saw it. The touching plea for tolerance and
justice for the Jew came from other sources. We have al-
ready considered what part might have been played by inti-
mate Jewish contacts. Outside of these, Vance was broadly
humanitarian, kindhearted, and tolerant. His whole person-
ality and character radiated kindness. Formally within the
folds of the Presbyterian Church after 1878, he was never
in the least narrow-minded or bigoted. Two years after the
death of his wife, he fell in love with and married Mrs. Flor-
ence Steele Martin of Louisville. Mrs. Martin was a widow
of some means and a devout Catholic. Only one acquainted
with the southern Protestant attitude toward Catholicism
can appreciate the significance of this step and the concern
it caused Vance. He wrote to a close friend that his bride-
to-be was suited to him in every way except "that she is
.48 •
SELIG ADLER
a Catholic. Think of it! What will my Presbyterian friends
say to me? This part of it gives me much concern, but I
am . . . still enough of a boy to scorn policy in such a matter,
and to listen somewhat to the suggestions of my heart."27
The marriage proved to be a most happy one. Occasionally
there were rumors that Vance was to be converted to his
wife's faith and some looked askance at his tolerance, but
on the whole he seems to have made an excellent adjust-
ment. The entire episode, in retrospect, is another example
of that open-mindedness in his character which inspired the
"Scattered Nation."
Jewish writers of these present gloomy days often look
back at the nineteenth century as the "halcyon days" of mod-
ern Jewish history. While Aryanism, the "streamlined"
Teutonic pogrom, and wholesale anti-Semitic propaganda
were still far in the future, anti-Jewish feeling was much
more than an abstraction in the 1870's. The very writing
and repeated delivery of the "Scattered Nation," and the
charges that it refutes, give proof that the Jewish situation
even in the United States was far from ideal. There were
somewhat less than five hundred Jews in North Carolina
at the time Vance wrote the speech, a fact that discounts all
political motives.28 North Carolina had long given concern
to the defenders of Jewish rights. The Secession Conven-
tion of 1861 had continued in the constitution to refuse the
right "of holding any office or place of trust or profit in the
civil department" to any person "who shall deny . . . the
divine authority either of the Old or New Testaments."29
The 1865 Convention made no change in the situation, but
the Constitutional Convention of 1868, apparently without
debate, altered the clause so as to admit Jews to public
office.30 Thus, Vance's plea for social equality came almost
immediately after the state had belatedly removed the last
remaining Jewish civil disqualifications. In the 1870's, es-
pecially in the North, the Jewish question took a new form.
Following the Federal victory Jews flocked into the coun-
• 49 .
ZEBULON B. VANCE
try in larger numbers than ever before. The German-Jewish
families who had become wealthy with the boom of the
1860's began to feel discrimination in mountain and sea-
shore resorts and were excluded from certain clubs and fra-
ternities. Social ostracism replaced the religious prejudice
of the earlier part of the century.31 A flood of Gentile voices
decried the new attitude as out of harmony with American
tradition. Vance's voice was but one of many which in-
cluded William Cullen Bryant, poet; James Parton, emi-
nent biographer; and James K. Hosmer, historian.32 Vance's
apologia may be considered as part of the reaction against
the anti-Jewish feeling attendant upon the first large wave
of Jewish immigration to these shores. Because of its au-
thor's position and eloquence and because of its essential
coherence and beauty it was the only part of this type of
American Judaica of the period to survive.
The date of the first composition and delivery of the
"Scattered Nation" is unknown. The year 1882 has often
been incorrectly cited in various oratorical collections which
have reprinted the speech. The New York Tribune of July
17, 1876, mentions the speech as having been repeatedly
delivered by Vance. Internal evidence within the essay
would indicate that it was written sometime between 1868
and 18 73. 33 It was undoubtedly one of those lectures which
Vance delivered during his Charlotte years to supplement
his law income. The exact occasion of the first delivery is
similarly lost to history.34 In later years the speech was re-
peated an almost countless number of times before Gentile
and Jewish audiences. A simple reading of the document,
however, would indicate that it was originally intended for
the Gentile public.35 During the course of some fifteen to
twenty years in which Vance was repeating the speech, he
must have made many changes in the text. It was his cus-
tom to alter his lecture topics as he repeated them.36 The
present writer is of the opinion that the "Scattered Nation"
underwent considerable revision during the early 1880's.
.50-
SELIG ADLER
The Russian pogroms of 1881 had focused much attention
on the Jewish question, the matter even entering discussion
in the halls of Congress. This interest must have resulted
in many additional invitations to deliver the lecture. The
final version of the speech mentions the "recent barbarities
inflicted upon them in Russia," followed by what is doubt-
less a description of the pogroms which persisted from April
to December, 1881. 37 "How sad it is," Vance said, "again
to hear that old cry of Jewish sorrow, which we had hoped
to hear no more forever!"38 Inasmuch as the Russian Jews
enjoyed a relative degree of security during the reign of
Tsar Alexander II from 1855 to 1881, Vance must have
been referring to the events of the last year. The fact that
the speech was revised and again popularized during this
period would explain the common error of setting 1882 as
the date of original composition.39
The "Scattered Nation" is distinctly one of Vance's seri-
ous efforts. There is little in it to indicate that it was written
by a man who enjoyed a reputation for drollery. It is another
illustration of the deeper, metaphysical side of Zebulon
Vance, so often clouded by his delightful wit and easy man-
nerism. The lecture is a composition resulting from Vance's
mastery of the Old Testament and conventional secondary
accounts on Jewish subjects. It is written in beautiful imag-
ery and garnished with apt and unusual quotations from
literature. The name of the speech is not original.40 Vance's
extra-Biblical sources are often readily discernible. He in-
troduced his subject with a striking description of the Gulf
Stream from the famous southern oceanographer, Matthew
Fontaine Maury. This was followed by an analogy of Israel
to the Gulf Stream— a river of people winding through the
sea of nations. He turned to the dawn of Jewish history by
quoting at length a condensation of the articles on the sub-
ject in the American Cyclopaedia.41 Vance mentioned his
indebtedness to The History of the Jews by Henry Hart
Milman. Dean Milman was a nineteenth-century English
• 51 •
ZEBULON B. VANCE
clergyman whose attitude toward Jewish history was both
rationalistic and sympathetic. For Jewish contributions to
medieval civilization, Vance consulted John W. Draper's
History of the Intellectual Development of Europe. Draper
was a contemporary professor of chemistry at New York
University whose historical writings were then in vogue.
While Vance's researches were far from exhaustive, the
essay exhibits a considerable amount of careful preparation.
The entire effort is woven into the background of general
reading and knowledge. Its chief survival value lies in its
beautiful rhetoric, logical organization, and, in parts, orig-
inality and freshness.
A detailed analysis of the "Scattered Nation" is beyond
the scope of the present article. Even if space permitted, a
condensation would be out of order with the majestic orig-
inal so easily accessible. The timber beams around which
the lecture is constructed are: the introduction, the origin
of the Jewish people and their religion, the Jewish the-
ocratic state, its condition in Biblical times, the present
state of the Jews— their habits and peculiarities, the ques-
tion of persecution, and the peroration. In places Vance
reveals his southern prejudices. For the sake of the Negro,
constitutions were violated, laws and partisan courts were
used to force an unnatural racial equality, yet Jews, "those
from whom we derive our civilization, kinsmen, after the
flesh, of Him whom we esteem as the Son of God and Savior
of Men, [are] ignomin[i]ously ejected from hotels and wa-
tering places as unworthy the association of men who had
grown rich by the sale of a new brand of soap or an im-
proved patent rat-trap!"42 Vance went on to say that he
did not question the existence of "Jewish scoundrels in great
abundance," but as to the prevalence of Gentile knaves in
still greater numbers, "Southern reconstruction put that
fact beyond a peradventure."43 Nor could he miss the op-
portunity of a thrust at some of his Yankee friends: "Is
there any man who hears me to-night," he asked his audi-
ts •
SELIG ADLER
ences, "who, if a Yankee and a Jew were to 'lock horns' in
a regular encounter of commercial wits, would not give
large odds on the Yankee? My own opinion is that the
genuine 'guessing' Yankee, with a jackknife and a pine
shingle could in two hours time whittle the smartest Jew
in New York out of his homestead in the Abrahamic cov-
enant."44
Unlike many Judeophiles, Vance did not overstate his
case. He did not paint the modern Jews as a people incap-
able of the foibles of the other species of mankind. Perhaps
it was Vance's kindly objectivity that explains the strength
of his plea. Despite seventy years of kaleidoscopic events,
the "Scattered Nation" is still a vigorous answer to twen-
tieth-century anti-Semitism. "Strike out all of Judaism from
the Christian church," he said, "and there remains nothing
but an unmeaning superstition."45 The Jew should be
judged "as we judge other men— by his merits. And above
all, let us cease the abominable injustice of holding the class
responsible for the sins of the individual. We apply this
test to no other people."46
How many times and in which cities Vance delivered the
"Scattered Nation" can only be a matter of surmise. A num-
ber of invitations from Jewish and Gentile organizations to
speak on the subject are in the Vance Papers, but these are
only fragmentary. For instance, in 1878 "The Israelites of
Goldsboro" sent Vance a formal petition to deliver his "cele-
brated lecture," the admission proceeds to be used for the
benefit of yellow fever sufferers in the South. The petition
also contained the request of various Christian clergymen,
the Presbyterian minister adding that the speech would also
be appreciated "by those of us who are not of Israel." In
1880 twenty-eight members of a Washington church pe-
titioned Vance to deliver the lecture, the receipts to be used
for parish work. Over the course of some fifteen years it
was delivered hundreds of times and "in almost every im-
portant city in the United States."47 Vance's lecturing ac-
• 53.
• ZEBULON B. VANCE •
tivities were halted by the loss of an eye in 1889. This was
a great emotional shock, and he was never quite himself for
the remaining five years of his life. But he had been active
long enough to make a profound and lasting impression on
Christian- Jewish relations in North Carolina. A funeral
oration by a Gentile member of the Charlotte bar reads in
part: "Zeb Vance is dead! The Scattered Nation gathers
round his tomb and weeps. No High Priest, clad in Heaven-
appointed robes, e'er plead the cause of Israel's race more
valiantly than he."48 The Charlotte Observer commented
on a memorial meeting held at the time of Vance's death:
"Perhaps there never was before a memorial meeting held
in honor of a great Gentile prince at which a representative
of the Israelitish nation stood up and paid such a tribute as
did Samuel Wittkowsky yesterday to the memory of Zeb-
ulon B. Vance. The scene was unique if not unprecedented
and unparalleled."49 Nor has the "Scattered Nation" lecture
been forgotten by North Carolinians throughout the years.
It has become a part of southern literature reprinted in
Oratory of the South, Modern Eloquence, Library of South-
ern Literature, and in three separate, bound editions.50 As
late as 1928 a new edition was published by Alfred Wil-
liams and Company of Raleigh, and at present there are
plans under way for still another edition. In 1922 the lec-
ture was reprinted in full in the Asheville Citizen at the
request of a non-Jewess.51 The Greensboro Daily News
of January 31, 1926, termed Vance "the latest Jewish
prophet" whose famous lecture "has almost attained a place
in Hebrew sacred literature." The past decade of Jewish
torment has more than once given rise to the vain regret,
"would that the voice of Vance were heard again in the
land."52
With the exception of his North Carolina "Israelitish in-
timates," Vance's Jewish connections do not appear to have
been extensive. One finds among his effects an occasional
elaborately engraved tribute from a Jewish congregation
.54-
SELIG ADLER
or society. A typical one encloses a "small tribute" for his
efforts and concludes: "Believing as we do in the God of
Israel, the God of the Bible, the prayers of this portion of
the 'Scattered Nation' will be sincerely offered in your be-
half."53 But if an argument from silence is valid, Vance
was not on intimate terms with the Jewish leaders of his
day. Such Jewish correspondence as is preserved is almost
entirely from obscure persons. For instance, a Reverend
S. Gerstmann of St. Joseph, Missouri, wanted the Senator's
help in 1878 in securing a rabbinical position in Rich-
mond.54 Six years later the reverend gentleman hinted that
with the Democratic return to power, he would not be
averse to accepting the Jerusalem consulship.55 Of great
significance is the fact that the American-Jewish press took
very little notice of Vance's death. The Israelite of Cin-
cinnati and the American-Hebrew of New York did not
mention his passing. The New York Jewish Messenger
carried a short notice of the event, adding that the late
Senator Vance "had the courage to say on the platform a
good word for the Jew, and did his share to teach his coun-
trymen, North and South, some needed lessons in justice
and brotherhood."56
Adequate Jewish appreciation of Vance's services did
not come until after his death. The 1904 and 1916 editions
of the essay found their way into many Jewish homes and
libraries. Jewish recognition of Vance's memory has grown
with the years. Shortly after the close of the World War of
1914-1918, the venerable philanthropist, Nathan Strauss,
went to Asheville, laid a wreath on Vance's monument, and
said that he did not want to die without discharging a debt
of gratitude.57 It was Strauss, too, who built a suitable fence
around the monument in Asheville City Square. In 1928
the Asheville Lodge of B'nai Brith dedicated a plaque to
Vance's memory in the yard of Old Calvary Church at Ashe-
ville, in a place which has been called the "Westminster
Abbey of the Southland." An assemblage of several thou-
• 55 .
• ZEBULON B. VANCE •
sand, including many dignitaries, were present that crisp
fall day when Rabbi Stephen S. Wise formally expressed
the tribute of American Jewry to Vance.58
The dark years of the 1930's have brought the members
of the "Scattered Nation" even closer to Vance's memory.
The American-Jewish Times of September, 1936, reprinted
the famous lecture in full in its New Year's edition as a
message of hope and consolation to the Jews of the world.
The sparks of European racial hatred and intolerance have
even fallen in the very shadow of Vance's birthplace. With
them has come a refreshing counteraction from the font of
his memory. Each May 13, Vance's birthday, the Asheville
representatives of the United Daughters of the Confederacy
and B'nai Brith sponsor a program around the Vance mon-
ument. Here, in the presence of the city officials and repre-
sentatives of other organizations, due tribute is paid to the
memory of this beloved North Carolinian. Despite inten-
sive devotion to his native state and section, Zebulon B.
Vance was first of all a great American. The paramount
lesson of his essay is that the people of the United States
allow the prejudices engendered by two thousand years of
Old World history to wither in the fresher breezes of the
New World atmosphere.
Reprinted from The Journal of Southern History, Vol. VII, No. 3,
August, 1941.
Selig Adler
1909-1985
Selig Adler was born in Baltimore on January 22, 1909.
He received his bachelor of arts degree from the University
of Buffalo in 1931, his masters and doctorate degrees from
the University of Illinois in 1932 and 1934. He was a Dis-
tinguished Professor of History at the University of Buffalo
(later the State University of New York at Buffalo). He
• 56 •
SELIG ADLER
served as Visiting Professor of History at Cornell Univer-
sity in 1951 and 1959, and as Visiting Professor of History
at the University of Rochester in 1952 and 1953. He was
the author of The Isolationist Impulse 1957, From Ararat
to Suburbia I960, and The Uncertain Giant 1965.
NOTES TO CHAPTER TWO
1. Charlotte Observer, April 19, 1894.
2. R. D. W. Connor, Makers of North Carolina History (Raleigh,
1911), 239.
3. The Ceremonies Attending the Unveiling of the Bronze Statue of
Zeb B. Vance, LL.D. in Capitol Square, Raleigh, N. C, and the Ad-
dress of Richard H. Battle, LL.D., August 22, 1900 (Raleigh, 1900),
38.
4. Statement of Isidore Wallace, Statesville, North Carolina, to the
writer, July 27, 1939.
5. Statement of Noble Bloomfield Mills to the writer, July 27, 1939.
Mr. Mills had lived all his eighty-seven years in Statesville or the im-
mediate vicinity, and in 1939 was still actively engaged in business.
6. Statement of Isidore Wallace to the writer, July 27, 1939.
7. Samuel Wittkowsky to Zebulon B. Vance, January 29, 1865, in
Zebulon B. Vance Papers (North Carolina Historical Commission, Ra-
leigh); Clement Dowd, Life of Zebulon B. Vance (Charlotte, 1897) , 95.
The writer wishes to express his thanks to Dr. Charles C. Crittenden,
secretary of the Commission, and to other members of the staff who
allowed him to make use of the material, and who with patience and
helpful suggestions guided his way through the many volumes of Vance
material.
8. Unidentified newspaper clipping found among a collection of
Vance Clippings in the North Carolina Room, University of North
Carolina Library. A slightly different version of Vance's conversation
with Wittkowsky may be found in Dowd, Zebulon B. Vance, 96.
9. Dowd, Zebulon B. Vance, 352.
10. Phillips Russell, "Hooraw for Vance!" in American Mercury
(New York, 1924-),XXII (1931), 238.
11. John B. Alexander, The History of Mecklenburg County from
1 740 to 1 900 ( Charlotte, 1902 ) , 379.
12. Daniel A. Tompkins, History of Mecklenburg Co. and the City
of Charlotte from 1740 to 1903, 2 vols. (Charlotte, 1904), I, 140.
13. Alexander, History of Mecklenburg County, 335 ff.
14. Unidentified newspaper clipping from a collection in the posses-
sion of the Mechanics Perpetual Building and Loan Association, Char-
lotte, North Carolina.
15. Ibid.
16. Unidentified newspaper clipping, in Vance Clippings.
17. Connor, Makers of North Carolina History, 233-234.
-57-
• ZEBULON B. VANCE •
18. Dowd, Zebulon B. Vance, 220.
19. Ibid., 121.
20. Greensboro Daily News, January 31, 1926.
21. In Memory of Mrs. Margaret M. Vance and Mrs. Hariette Espy
Vance (Raleigh, 1878), 8, 25.
22. Vance to Cornelia P. Spencer, December 10, 1878, in Cornelia
P. Spencer Papers (North Carolina Historical Commission, Raleigh).
23. Quoted in Russell, "Hooraw for Vance!" in loc. cit., 233.
24. Vance to David L. Swain, September 22, 1864, quoted in uni-
dentified newspaper clipping in Vance Papers.
25. Vance made this statement in his Tammany Hall speech of July
4, 1886. D. W. McCauley to Vance, July 19, 1886, ibid.
26. Statement of Frank D. Alexander, Charlotte, to the writer, July
27, 1939.
27. Vance to Spencer, May 6, 1880, in Spencer Papers.
28. Iser L. Freund, "Brief History of the Jews of North Carolina"
(MS. in possession of the University of North Carolina Library).
29. Leon Huhner, "The Struggle for Religious Liberty in North
Carolina, with Special Reference to the Jews," in American Jewish His-
torical Society, Publications (Baltimore, 1893-), No. 16 (1907), 37-
71; Francis N. Thorpe (ed.), The Federal and State Constitutions,
Colonial Charters, and Other Organic Laws of the . . . United States
of America, 7 vols. (Washington, 1909), V, 2793.
30. Huhner, "The Struggle for Religious Liberty in North Carolina,"
in loc. cit., 68.
31. Alice H. Rhine, "Race Prejudice at Summer Resorts," in Forum
(New York, 1886-), III (1887), 523-531.
32. Ibid., 524, 529; James Parton, "Our Israelitish Brethren," in
Atlantic Monthly (Boston, 1857-), XXVI (1870), 385-403.
33. The earliest reference that the writer has been able to find con-
cerning the "Scattered Nation" was written in 1875. By that date it
seems that the lecture was already well known. The speech begins,
"Says Professor Maury." Matthew Fontaine Maury did not enter aca-
demic life until 1868 when he became a member of the faculty of the
Virginia Military Institute, so the introduction was written after 1868.
Maury died in 1873, yet there is no mention of the "late distinguished
Professor," or some other tribute that Vance would have likely paid
a recently deceased eminent ex-Confederate. The introduction, then,
sounds very much as if it were written before Maury's death. There is
other circumstantial evidence which would warrant putting the date
of composition between the above-mentioned years. See H. A. Marmer,
"Matthew Fontaine Maury," in Dictionary of American Biography, 20
vols, and index (New York, 1928-1937), XII, 430-431.
34. Tradition asserts that the "Scattered Nation" was first delivered
in Baltimore. The writer was unable to find any corroboration after a
search which included visits to the Peabody Institute and Enoch Pratt
Free libraries in Baltimore. Yet, in view of Vance's close Baltimore
connections, especially in the person of Dr. Thomas J. Boykin, the for-
mer surgeon of his regiment, the tradition may well be founded in fact.
35. For instance, Vance's statement that the Jews "trouble neither
you nor me." Dowd, Zebulon B. Vance, 388. All quotations and refer-
• 58 •
SELIG ADLER
ences to the "Scattered Nation" are to the version in ibid., 369-399.
The various editions of the speech differ in minor details.
36. In an undated letter to an unidentified correspondent, in the
Vance Papers, Vance wrote: "No danger of my publishing my Lecture.
I want to repeat it, and I agree with you that it is not prudent to put
it in print. I have rewritten it, and 'woven in the thread' you mention."
This reference may or may not be to the "Scattered Nation."
37. Herman Rosenthal, "Alexander III., Alexandrovich," in Jewish
Encyclopedia, 12 vols. (New York, 1901-1906), I, 347. Vance also
spoke of the new German anti-Semitism. It is hardly probable that he
had heard of this new movement until after 1878, for it was then that
Bismarck turned to the program of the reactionaries. This part of the
speech also was probably added in 1882. Gotthard Deutsch, "Anti-
Semitism," ibid., 644-645.
38. Dowd, Zebulon B. Vance, 394.
39. Ashley H. Thorndike (ed.), Modern Eloquence, 15 vols. (New
York, 1936), XIII, 396. This source states that the speech was "de-
livered in 1882 and thereafter in various places." The same date is given
in various other oratorical and literary collections.
40. For instance, The Scattered Nation; Past, Present and Future, a
missionary periodical addressed to the Jews, was published in London
in the 1860's. The Israelite of March 3, 1871, a Cincinnati Jewish or-
gan, published an article under the same title. It is hardly possible that
the author of this article had ever heard of Vance's lecture at this early
date, if indeed Vance had already written it.
41. "Hebrews," in American Cyclopaedia, 16 vols. (New York, 1873—
1876), VIII, 582 ff.
42. Dowd, Zebulon B. Vance, 393.
43. Ibid., 396.
44. Ibid., 397.
45. Ibid., 374.
46. Ibid., 393.
47. R. D. W. Connor, "Zebulon Baird Vance," in Dictionary of
American Biography, XIX, 161.
48. Edwin D. Shurter (ed.), Oratory of the South, From the Civil
War to the Present Time (New York, 1908), 181. This eulogy by
Charles W. Tillett has been reprinted in many places. If often appears
without the paragraph concerning the "Scattered Nation." It is pos-
sible that this section was added later, although the rest of the eulogy
was written at the time of Vance's death. Dowd, Zebulon B. Vance,
327-329, reprinted Tillett's eulogy in 1897 without this paragraph.
49. Charlotte Observer, April 17, 1894.
50. The speech was printed, probably in the newspapers, at least
as early as 1878. A petition for its delivery in Goldsboro, dated 1878,
and found in the Vance Papers, mentions that many of the petitioners
had already read the speech. Dowd, Zebulon B. Vance, 369—399, re-
printed it in full in 1897. The first separately bound edition was pub-
lished privately by Willis Bruce Dowd in 1904 and contained an intro-
duction by the publisher. The 1916 edition was printed in New York
with the 1904 introduction and a foreword by M. Schnitzer. The 1928
edition was published in Raleigh and has an introduction by Rabbi
-59.
ZEBULON B. VANCE
Moses P. Jacobson, then of Asheville. It was sponsored by the Asheville
Lodge of B'nai Brith in connection with the unveiling of the Vance
plaque in that city. At the present writing, District Grand Lodge Num-
ber Five, B'nai Brith, is contemplating a fourth edition.
51. Asheville Citizen, February 8, 1922.
52. Ibid., May 13, 1938.
53. Tribute to Vance from an unidentified Jewish social organiza-
tion, in Vance Papers.
54. S. Gerstmann to Vance, August 7, 1878, ibid.
55. Id. to id., November 30, 1884, ibid.
56. New York Jewish Messenger, April 27, 1894.
57. Statement of D. Hiden Ramsey, general manager and secretary
of the Asheville Citizen-Times Company, Asheville, N. C, to the writer,
July 28, 1939.
58. Raleigh News and Observer, October 15, 1928; Asheville Citizen,
October 14, 15, 1928.
•60.
The Scattered Nation"
•CHAPTER THREE-
The Scattered Nation
BY ZEBULON B. VANCE
j^jr ays Prof. Maury: "There is
a river in the ocean. In the severest droughts it never fails,
and in the mightiest floods it never overflows. The Gulf of
Mexico is its fountain, and its mouth is in the Arctic seas.
It is the Gulf Stream. There is in the world no other such
majestic flow of waters. Its current is more rapid than the
Mississippi or the Amazon, and its volume more than a
thousand times greater. Its waters, as far out from the
Gulf as the Carolina coasts, are of an indigo blue; they are
so distinctly marked that their line of junction with the
common sea-water may be traced by the eye. Often one-
half of a vessel may be perceived floating in Gulf stream
water, while the other half is in common water of the sea,
so sharp is the line and such the want of affinity between
those waters, and such too the reluctance, so to speak, on
the part of those of the Gulf Stream to mingle with the
common water of the sea."
This curious phenomenon in the physical world has its
counterpart in the moral. There is a lonely river in the
midst of the ocean of mankind. The mightiest floods of
human temptation have never caused it to overflow and the
fiercest fires of human cruelty, though seven times heated
in the furnace of religious bigotry, have never caused it
to dry up, although its waves for two thousand years have
. 63 •
ZEBULON B. VANCE
rolled crimson with the blood of its martyrs. Its fountain
is in the grey dawn of the world's history, and its mouth is
somewhere in the shadows of eternity. It too refuses to min-
gle with the surrounding waves, and the line which divides
its restless billows from the common waters of humanity
is also plainly visible to the eye. It is the Jewish race.
The Jew is beyond doubt the most remarkable man of
this world— past or present. Of all the stories of the sons
of men, there is none so wild, so wonderful, so full of ex-
treme mutation, so replete with suffering and horror, so
abounding in extraordinary providences, so overflowing
with scenic romance. There is no man who approaches him
in the extent and character of the influence which he has
exercised over the human family. His history is the history
of our civilization and progress in this world, and our faith
and hope in that which is to come. From him have we de-
rived the form and pattern of all that is excellent on earth
or in heaven. If, as DeQuincey says, the Roman Emperors,
as the great accountants for the happiness of more men and
men more cultivated than ever before, were entrusted to the
motions of a single will, had a special, singular and mys-
terious relation to the secret councils of heaven— thrice
truly may it be said of the Jew. Palestine, his home, was the
central chamber of God's administration. He was at once
the grand usher to these glorious courts, the repository of
the councils of the Almighty and the envoy of the divine
mandates to the consciences of men. He was the priest and
faith-giver to mankind, and as such, in spite of the jibe
and jeer, he must ever be considered as occupying a pecu-
liar and sacred relation to all other peoples of this world.
Even now, though the Jews have long since ceased to exist
as a consolidated nation, inhabiting a common country,
and for eighteen hundred years have been scattered far and
near over the wide earth, their strange customs, their dis-
tinct features, personal peculiarities and their scattered
unity, make them still a wonder and an astonishment.
. 64 •
. "the scattered nation" •
Though dead as a nation— as we speak of nations— they
yet live. Their ideas fill the world and move the wheels of
its progress, even as the sun, when he sinks behind the
Western hills, yet fills the heavens with the remnants of
his glory. As the destruction of matter in one form is made
necessary to its resurrection in another, so it would seem
that the perishing of the Jewish nationality was in order
to the universal acceptance and the everlasting establish-
ment of Jewish ideas. Never before was there an instance
of such a general rejection of the person and character, and
acceptance of the doctrines and dogmas of a people.
We admire with unlimited admiration the Greek and
Roman, but reject with contempt his crude and beastly
divinities. We affect to despise the Jew, but accept and
adore the pure conception of a God which he taught us, and
whose real existence the history of the Jew more than all
else establishes. When the Court Chaplain of Frederick
the Great was asked by that bluff monarch for a brief and
concise summary of the argument in support of the truths
of Scripture, he instantly replied, with a force to which
nothing could be added, "The Jews, Your Majesty, the
Jews."
I propose briefly to glance at their history, origin and
civilization, peculiarities, present condition and probable
destiny.
"A people of Semitic race," says the Encyclopaedia,
"whose ancestors appear at the very dawn of the history
of mankind, on the banks of Euphrates, the Jordan and the
Nile, their fragments are now to be seen in larger or smaller
numbers, in almost all of the cities of the globe, from Ba-
tavia to New Orleans, from Stockholm to Cape Town.
When little more numerous than a family, they had their
language, customs and peculiar observances, treated with
princes and in every respect acted as a nation. Though
broken, as if into atoms, and scattered through all climes,
among the rudest and the most civilized nations, they have
. 65 •
ZEBULON B. VANCE
preserved, through thousands of years, common features
and observances, a common religion, literature and sacred
language. Without any political union, without any com-
mon head or centre, they are generally regarded and regard
themselves as a nation. They began as nomads, emigrating
from country to country; their law made them agriculturists
for fifteen centuries; their exile transformed them into a
mercantile people. They have struggled for their national
existence against the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians,
Syrians and Romans; have been conquered and nearly ex-
terminated by each of these powers and have survived them
all. They have been oppressed and persecuted by Emper-
ors and Republics, by Sultans and by Popes, Moors and
Inquisitors; they were proscribed in Catholic Spain, Prot-
estant Norway and Greek Muscovy, while their persecutors
sang the hymns of their psalmody, revered their books, be-
lieved in their prophets and even persecuted them in the
name of their God. They have numbered philosophers
among the Greeks of Alexandria, and the Saracens of Cor-
dova; have transplanted the wisdom of the East beyond the
Pyrenees and the Rhine, and have been treated as pariahs
among Pagans, Mohammedans and Christians. They have
fought for liberty under Kosciusko and Blucher, and pop-
ular assemblies among the Sclavi and Germans, still with-
held from them the right of living in certain towns, villages
and streets."
Whilst no people can claim such an unmixed purity of
blood, certainly none can establish such antiquity of origin,
such unbroken generations of descent. That splendid pas-
sage of Macaulay so often quoted, in reference to the Ro-
man Pontiffs, loses its force in sight of Hebrew history. "No
other institution," says he, "is left standing which carries
the mind back to the times when the smoke of sacrifice rose
from the Pantheon, and when camels, leopards, and tigers
bounded in the Iberian amphitheatre. The proudest royal
houses are but of yesterday as compared with the line of
. 66 .
"the scattered nation" •
the Supreme Pontiffs; that line we trace back in unbroken
lines, from the Pope who crowned Napoleon in the nine-
teenth century, to the Pope who crowned Pepin in the
eighth, and far beyond Pepin, the august dynasty extends
until it is lost in the twilight of fable. The Republic of
Venice came next in antiquity, but the Republic of Venice
is modern compared with the Papacy, and the Republic of
Venice is gone and the Papacy remains. The Catholic
Church was great and respected before the Saxon had set
foot on Britain, before the Frank had passed the Rhine,
when Grecian eloquence still flourished at Antioch, when
idols were still worshipped in the Temple at Mecca; and
she may still exist, in undiminished vigor when some travel-
ler from New Zealand in the midst of a vast solitude shall
take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch
the ruins of St. Paul." This is justly esteemed one of the
most eloquent passages in our literature, but I submit it is
not history.
The Jewish people, church and institutions are still left
standing, though the stones of the temple remain no longer
one upon the other, though its sacrificial fires are forever
extinguished; and though the tribes, whose glory it was,
wander with weary feet throughout the earth. And what is
the line of Roman Pontiffs compared to that splendid dy-
nasty of the successors of Aaron and Levi? "The twilight
of fable," in which the line of Pontiffs began, was but the
noonday brightness of the Jewish priesthood. Their insti-
tution carries the mind back to the age when the prophet,
in rapt mood, stood over Babylon and uttered God's wrath
against that grand and wondrous mistress of the Euphra-
tean plains— when the Memphian chivalry still gave prec-
edence to the chariots and horsemen who each morning
poured forth from the brazen gates of the abode of Ammon;
when Tyre and Sidon were yet building their palaces by the
sea, and Carthage, their greatest daughter, was yet unborn.
That dynasty of prophetic priest existed even before Clio's
• 67 •
• ZEBULON B. VANCE •
pen had learned to record the deeds of men; and when that
splendid, entombed civilization once lighted the shores of
the Erythraean Sea, the banks of the Euphrates and the
plains of Shinar, with a glory inconceivable, of which there
is nought now to tell, except the dumb eloquence of ruined
temples and buried cities.
Then, too, it must be remembered that these Pontiffs
were but Gentiles in the garb of Jews, imitating their whole
routine. All Christian churches are but off-shoots from or
grafts upon the old Jewish stock. Strike out all of Judaism
from the Christian church and there remains nothing but
an unmeaning superstition.
The Christian is simply the successor of the Jew— the
glory of the one is likewise the glory of the other. The Sav-
iour of the world was, after the flesh, a Jew— born of a
Jewish maiden; so likewise were all of the apostles and
first propagators of Christianity. The Christian religion is
equally Jewish with that of Moses and the prophets.
I am not unaware of the fact that other people besides the
Semites had a conception of the true God long before He
was revealed to Abraham. The Hebrew Scriptures them-
selves testify this, and so likewise do the books of the very
oldest of written records. The fathers of the great Aryan
race, the shepherds of Iran had so vivid a conception of
the unity of God, as to give rise to the opinion that they
too had once had a direct revelation. It is more likely, how-
ever, that traditions of this God had descended among them
from the Deluge which ultimately became adulterated by
polytheistic imaginings. It seems natural that these people
of highly sensitive intellects, dwelling beneath the serene
skies, that impend over the plains and mountains of South-
western Asia, thickly studded with the calm and glorious
stars, should mistake these most majestic emblems of the
Creator for the Creator himself. Hence no doubt, arose the
worship of light and fire by the Iranians, and Sabseanism
or star worship by the Chaldeans. But the better opinion of
• 68 •
• "the scattered nation" •
learned orientalists is that while the outward or exoteric
doctrine taught the worship of the symbols, the esoteric or
secret doctrines of Zoroaster, his predecessors and disciples,
taught in fact the worship of the Principle, the First Cause,
the Great Unknown, the Universal Intelligence, Magdam
or God. There can be no doubt that Abraham brought this
monotheistic conception with him from Chaldea; but not-
withstanding this dim traditional light, which was abroad
outside of the race of Shem, perhaps over the entire breadth
of that splendid prehistoric civilization of the Arabian Cu-
shite, yet for the more perfect light, which revealed to us
God and His attributes, we are unquestionably indebted to
the Jew.
We owe to him, if not the conception, at least the preser-
vation of pure monotheism. For whether this knowledge
was original with these eastern people or traditional merely,
it was speedily lost, by all of them except the Jews. Whilst
an unintelligent use of symbolism enveloped the central
figure with a cloud of idolatry and led the Magi to the wor-
ship of Light and Fire, the Sabaean to the adoration of the
heavenly host, the Egyptian to bowing down before Isis and
Osiris, the Carthaginian to the propitiation of Baal and
Astarte by human sacrifice and the subtle Greek to the deifi-
cation of the varied laws of Nature; the bearded Prophets of
Israel were ever thundering forth, "Know O Israel, that the
Lord thy God is one God, and Him only shalt thou serve."
Even his half-brother Ishmael, after an idolatrous sleep
of centuries, awoke with a sharp and bloody protest against
Polytheism, and established the unity of God as the corner-
stone of his faith. In this respect the influence which the Jew
has exercised over the destinies of mankind place him before
all the men of this world. For in this idea of God, all of the
faith and creeds of the dominant peoples of the earth centre.
It divides like a great mountain range the civilizations of
the ancient and modern worlds. Many enlightened men
of antiquity acknowledged the beauty of this conception,
• 69 .
ZEBULON B. VANCE •
though they did not embrace it. Socrates did homage to it,
and Josephus declares that he derived his sublime ideal
from the Jewish Scriptures. The accomplished Tacitus
seemed to grasp it, as the following passage will show. In
speaking of the Jews and in contrasting them with the
Egyptians, he says: "With regard to the Deity, their creed
is different. The Egyptians worship various animals and
also certain symbolical representatives which are the work
of man. The Jews acknowledge one God only, and Him they
see in the mind's eye, and Him they adore in contemplation,
condemning as impious idolaters, all who with perishable
materials wrought into the human form, attempt to give a
representation of the Deity. The God of the Jews is the
great governing mind that directs and guides the whole
frame of nature— eternal, infinite and neither capable of
change or subject to decay."
This matchless and eloquent definition of the Deity has
never been improved upon, but it seems that it made slight
impression upon the philosophical historian's mind. And
yet what a contrast it is with his own coarse, material gods!
Indeed the rejection or ignorance of this pure conception
by the acute and refined intellects of the mediaeval ancients
strikes us with wonder, and illustrates the truth, that no
man by searching can find out God. I am not unaware that
the Arabian idea of Deity received many modifications from
the conceptions of adjoining and contemporary nations—
by cross-fertilization of ideas, as the process has been called.
From the Egyptians and Assyrians were received many of
these modifications, but the chief impression was from the
Greeks. The general effect was to broaden and enlarge the
original idea, whose tendency was to regard the Supreme
Being as a tribal Deity, into the grander, universal God, or
Father of all. If time permitted it would be a most interest-
ing study to trace the action and reaction of Semitic upon
Hellenistic thought. How Hellenistic philosophy produced
Pharisaism or the progressive party of the Hebrew Theists;
• 70.
• "the scattered nation" •
how Pharisaism in turn produced Stoicism, which again
prepared the way for Christianity itself.
The whole polity of the Jews was originally favorable
to agriculture; and though they adhered to it closely for
many centuries, yet, the peculiar facilities of their country
ultimately forced them largely into commerce. The great
caravan routes from the rich countries of the East, Mesopo-
tamia, Shinar, Babylonia, Media, Assyria and Persia, to
the ports of the Mediterranean, lay through Palestine,
whilst Spain, Italy, Gaul, Asia Minor, Northern Africa,
Egypt, and all the riches that then clustered around the
shores of the Great Sea and upon the islands in its bosom,
had easy access to its harbors. In fact the wealth of the
world, its civilization, refinement and art lay in concentric
circles around Jerusalem as a focal point. The Jewish peo-
ple grew rich in spite of themselves and gradually forsook
their agricultural simplicity.
But more than all things else their institutions interest
mankind. Their laws for the protection of property, the
enforcement of industry and the upholding of the state were
such as afforded the strongest impulse to personal freedom
and national vigor. The great principle of their real estate
laws was the inalienability of the land. Houses in walled
towns might be sold in perpetuity, if unredeemed within
the year; land only for a limited period. At the year of
Jubilee every estate reverted without repurchase to the
original owners, and even during this period it might be
redeemed by paying the value of the purchase of the year
which intervened until the Jubilee. Little as we may now
be disposed to value this remarkable Agrarian law, says
Dean Milman, it secured the political equality of the people
and anticipated all the mischiefs so fatal to the early Re-
publics of Greece and Italy, the appropriation of the whole
territory of the State, by a rich and powerful landed oli-
garchy, with the consequent convulsing of the community
from the deadly struggles between the patrician and the
. 71 -
• ZEBULON B. VANCE •
plebeian orders. In the Hebrew state the improvident man
might indeed reduce himself and his family to penury or
servitude, but he could not perpetuate a race of slaves or
paupers. Every fifty years God the King and Lord of the
soil, as it were, resumed the whole territory and granted it
back in the same portions to the descendants of the original
possessors.
It is curious to observe, continues the same author, in
this earliest practicable Utopia, the realization of Machi-
avelli's great maxim, the constant renovation of a state,
according to the first principles of its constitution, a maxim
recognized by our own statesmen, which they designate
as a "frequent recurrence to the first principles." How lit-
tle we learn that is new. The civil polity of the Jews is
so intimately blended historically with the ecclesiastical
that the former is not easily comprehended by the ordinary
student. Their scriptures relate principally to the latter, and
to obtain a knowledge of the other, resort must be had to
the Talmud and the Rabbinical expositions, a task that few
men will let themselves to, who hope to do anything else
in this world. Yet a little study will repay richly the political
student, by showing him the origin of many excellent sem-
inal principles which we regard as modern. Their govern-
ment was in form a theocratic democracy. God was not only
their spiritual but their temporal sovereign also, who pro-
mulgated his laws by the mouths of his inspired prophets.
Hence their terrible and unflagging denunciations of all
forms of idolatry— it was not only a sin against pure re-
ligion, but it was treason also. In most other particulars
theirs was a democracy far purer than that of Athens. The
very important principle of the separation of the functions
of government was recognized. The civil and ecclesiastical
departments were kept apart, the civil ruler exercised no
ecclesiastic functions and vice versa. When, as sometimes
happened, the two functions rested in the same man, they
were yet exercised differently, as was not long since our
•72.
. "the scattered nation" •
custom in the administration of equity as contra-distin-
guished from law.
Their organic law containing the elements of their polity,
though given by God Himself, was yet required to be sol-
emnly ratified by the whole people. This was done on Ebal
and Gerizim and is perhaps the first, as it is certainly the
grandest constitutional convention ever held among men.
On these two lofty mountains, separated by a deep and
narrow ravine, all Israel, comprising three millions of souls,
were assembled; elders, prophets, priests, women and chil-
dren, and 600,000 warriors, led by the spears of Judah
and supported by the archers of Benjamin. In this mighty
presence, surrounded by the sublime accessions to the gran-
deur of the scene, the law was read by the Levites line by
line, item by item, whilst the tribes on either height signi-
fied their acceptance thereof by responsive amens, which
pierced the heavens. Of all the great principles established
for the happiness and good government of our race, though
hallowed by the blood of the bravest and the best, and ap-
proved by centuries of trial, no one had a grander origin, or
a more glorious exemplification than this one, that all gov-
ernments derive their just powers from the consent of the
governed.
So much for their organic law. Their legislation upon
the daily exigencies and development of their society was
also provided for on the most radically democratic basis,
with the practical element of representation. The Sanhed-
rin legislated for all ecclesiastical affairs, and had also
original judicial powers and jurisdiction over all offenses
against the religious law, and appellate jurisdiction of many
other offenses. It was the principal body of their polity, as
religion was the principal object of their constitution. It
was thoroughly representative. Local and municipal gov-
ernment was fully recognized. The legislation for a city
was done by the elders thereof, the prototypes in name and
character of our eldermen or aldermen.
. 73 •
ZEBULON B. VANCE
They were the keystone of the whole social fabric, and so
directly represented the people, that the terms "elders" and
"people" are often used as synonymous. The legislation for
a tribe was done by the princes of that tribe, and the heads
of families thereof; whilst the elders of all the cities, heads
of all the families and princes of all the tribes when assem-
bled, constituted the National Legislature, or congregation.
The functions of this representative body, however, were
gradually usurped and absorbed by the Sanhedrin.
So thoroughly recognized was the principle of represen-
tation that no man exercised any political rights in his indi-
vidual capacity, but only as a member of the house, which
was the basis of the Hebrew polity. The ascending scale
was the family or collection of houses, the tribe or collec-
tion of families and the congregation or collection of tribes.
The Kingdom thus composed was in fact a confederation,
and exemplified both its strength and its weakness. The
tribes were equal and sovereign within the sphere of their
individual concerns. A tribe could convene its own legisla-
tive body at pleasure; so could any number of tribes con-
vene a joint body whose enactments were binding only
upon the tribes represented therein. A single tribe or any
number combined could make treaties, form alliances and
wage war, whilst the others remained at peace with the
enemy of their brethren. They were to all intents and pur-
poses independent States, joined together for common ob-
jects on the principle of federal republics, with a general
government of delegated and limited powers. Within their
tribal boundaries their sovereignty was absolute minus only
the powers granted to the central agent. They elected their
chiefs, generals and kings. Next to the imperative necessity
of common defense their bond of union was their divine
constitution, one religion and one blood. Justice was made
simple and was administered cheaply. Among no people in
this world did the law so recognize the dignity and sacred
• 74.
. "the scattered nation" •
nature of man made in the image of God and the creature
of his especial covenanting care.
The constitution of their criminal courts and their code
of criminal laws was most remarkable. The researches of
the learned have failed to discover in all antiquity anything
so explicit, so humane, and embracing so many of what are
now considered the essential elements of enlightened juris-
prudence. Only four offenses were punished by death. By
English law, no longer ago than the reign of George I,
more than 150 offenses were so punishable! The court for
the trial of these capital offenders was the local Sanhedrin,
composed of twenty-three members, who were both judges
and jurors, prosecuting attorneys and counsel for the ac-
cused.
The tests applied both to them, and the accusing wit-
nesses, as to capacity and impartiality, were more rigid
than those known to exist anywhere else in the world. The
whole procedure was so guarded as to convey the idea that
the first object was to save the criminal.
From the first step of the accusation to the last moment
preceding final execution, no caution was neglected, no
solemnity was omitted, that might aid the prisoner's ac-
quittal. No man in any way interested in the result, no
gamester of any kind, no usurer, no store dealer, no relative
of accused or accuser, no seducer or adulterer, no man with-
out a fixed trade or business, could sit on that court. Nor
could any aged man whose infirmities might make him
harsh, nor any childless man or bastard, as being insensible
to the relations of parent and child.
Throughout the whole system of the Jewish government
there ran a broad, genuine and refreshing stream of de-
mocracy, such as the world then knew little of, and has since
but little improved. For of course the political student will
not be deceived by names. It matters not what their chief
magistrates and legislators were called, if in fact and in
• 75.
ZEBU LO N B. VANCE
substance, their forms were eminently democratic. Masters
of political philosophy tell us— and tell us with truth— that
power in a State must and will reside with those who own
the soil. If the land belongs to a king the government is a
despotism, though every man in it voted; if the land be-
longs to a select few, it is an aristocracy: but if it belongs
to the many, it is a democracy, for here is the division of
power. Now, where, either in the ancient or modern world,
will you find such a democracy as that of Israel? For where
was there ever such a perfect and continuing division of the
land among the people? It was impossible for this power
ever to be concentrated in the hands of one or a select few.
The lands belonged to God as the head of the Jewish nation
—the right of eminent domain, so to speak, was in Him—
and the people were His tenants.
The year of Jubilee, as we have seen, came ever in time
to blast the schemes of the ambitious and designing.
Their law provided for no standing army, the common
defense was entrusted to the patriotism of the people, who
kept and bore arms at will, and believing that their hills
and valleys would be best defended by footmen, the use of
cavalry was forbidden, lest it should tend to feed the pas-
sion for foreign conquest.
The ecclesiastical Sanhedrin as before observed, was the
principal body of their polity. Its members were composed
of the wisest and most learned of their people, who ex-
pounded and enforced the law and supervised all the in-
ferior courts. This exposition upon actual cases arising did
not suffice the learned doctors, who made the great mistake
which modern courts have learned to avoid, of uttering
their dicta in anticipated cases. These decisions and dicta
constitute the ground work of the Talmuds, of which there
are two copies extant. They constitute the most remarkable
collection of oriental wisdom, abstruse learning, piety, blas-
phemy and obscenity ever got together in the world; and
bear the same relation to the Jewish law, which our judicial
• 76.
. "the scattered nation" •
decisions do to our statute law. Could they be disentombed
from the mass of rubbish by which they are covered— said
to be so great as to deter all students who are not willing
to devote a life-time to the task, from entering upon their
study— they would no doubt be of inestimable value to the-
ologians, by furnishing all the aids which contemporaneous
construction must ever impart.
Time would not permit me if I had the power, to describe
the chief city of the Jews, their religious and political cap-
ital—"Jerusalem the Holy"— "the dwelling of peace." In
the days of Jewish prosperity it was in all things a fair type
of this strange country and people. Enthroned upon the hills
of Judah, overflowing with riches, the free-will offerings
of a devoted people— decked with the barbaric splendor of
eastern taste, it was the rival in power and wondrous beauty
of the most magnificent cities of antiquity. Nearly every one
of her great competitors has mouldered into dust. The bat
and the owl inhabit their towers, and the fox litters her
young in the corridors of their palaces, but Jerusalem still
sits in solitary grandeur upon the lovely hills, and though
faded, feeble and ruinous still towers in moral splendor
above all the spires and domes and pinnacles ever erected
by human hands. Nor can I dwell, tempting as is the theme,
upon the scenery, the glowing landscapes, the cultivated
fields, gardens and vineyards and gurgling fountains of
that pleasant land. Many high summits and even one of
the towers in the walls of the city of Jerusalem were said to
have afforded a perfect view of the whole land from border
to border. I must be content with asking you to imagine
what a divine prospect would burst upon the vision from
the summit of that stately tower; and picture the burning
sands of the desert far beyond the mysterious waters of the
Dead Sea on the one hand, and the shining waves of the
great sea on the other, flecked with the white sails of the
Tyrian ships, whilst hoary Lebanon, crowned with its dia-
dem of perpetual snow glittered in the morning light like
• 77.
ZEBULON B. VANCE
a dome of fire tempered with the emerald of its cedar— a
fillet of glory around its brow. The beauty of that band of
God's people, the charm of their songs, the comeliness of
their maidens, the celestial peace of their homes, the ro-
mance of their national history, and the sublimity of their
faith, so entice me, that I would not know when to cease,
should I once enter upon their story. I must leave behind,
too, the blood-stained record of their last great siege, illus-
trated by their splendid but unavailing courage; their fatal
dissensions and final destruction, with all its incredible
horrors; of their exile and slavery, of their dispersion in all
lands and kingdoms, of their persecutions, sufferings, wan-
derings and despair, for eighteen hundred years. Indeed,
it is a story that puts to shame not only our Christianity,
but our common humanity. It staggers belief to be told,
not only that such things could be done at all, by blinded
heathen or ferocious Pagan, but done by Christian people
and in the name of Him, the meek and lowly, who was
called the Prince of Peace, and the harbinger of good will
to men. Still it is an instructive story; it seems to mark in
colors never to be forgotten, both the wickedness and the
folly of intolerance. Truly, it serves to show that the wrath
of a religious bigot is more fearful and ingenious than the
crudest of tortures hatched in the councils of hell. It is not
my purpose to comment upon the religion of the Jews, nor
shall I undertake to say that they gave no cause in the ear-
lier ages of Christianity for the hatred of their opponents.
Undoubtedly they gave much cause, and exhibited them-
selves much bitterness and ferocity towards the followers
of the Nazarene; which however, it may be an excuse, is
far from being a justification of the centuries of horror
which followed. But if constancy, faithfulness and devotion
to principle under the most trying circumstances to which
the children of men were ever subjected, be considered vir-
tues, then indeed are the Jews to be admired. They may
safely defy the rest of mankind to show such undying ad-
• 78 •
. "the scattered nation" •
herence to accepted faith, such wholesale sacrifice for con-
science sake. For it they have in all ages given up home and
country, wives and children, gold and goods, ease and shel-
ter and life; for it they endured all the evils of an infernal
wrath for eighteen centuries; for it they have endured, and
—say what you will— endured with an inexpressible man-
hood that which no other portion of the human family ever
have, or, in my opinion, ever would have endured. For sixty
generations the heritage which the father left the son was
misery, suffering, shame and despair; and that son pre-
served and handed down to his son, that black heritage as
a golden heir-loom, for the sake of God.
A few remarks upon their numbers and present status
in the world, their peculiarities and probable destiny and
my task will be done.
Originally, as we have seen, the Jews were an agricul-
tural people, and their civil polity was framed specially for
this state of things. Indeed the race of Shem originally
seemed not to have been endowed with the great commer-
cial instincts which characterize the descendants of Ham
and Japheth. Their cities for the most part, were built in
the interior, remote from the channels of trade, whilst the
race of Ham and Japheth built upon the sea shore, and the
banks of great rivers. But the exile of the Jews converted
them necessarily into merchants. Denied as a general rule
citizenship in the land of their refuge, subject at any mo-
ment to spoliation and expulsion, their only sure means of
living was in traffic, in which they soon became skilled on
the principles of a specialty in labor.
They naturally, therefore, followed in their dispersion,
as they have ever since done, the great channels of com-
merce throughout the world, with such deflections here and
there as persecution rendered necessary. But notwithstand-
ing the many impulses to which their wanderings have been
subjected, they have in the main obeyed the general laws
of migration by moving east and west upon nearly the same
•79.
• ZEBULON B. VANCE •
parallels of latitude. Their numbers in spite of losses by
all causes, including religious defection, which, everything
considered, has been remarkably small, have steadily in-
creased and are now variously estimated at seven to nine
millions. They may be divided, says Dr. Pressell, into three
great classes, the enumeration of which will show their
wonderful dispersion. The first of these inhabit the interior
of Africa, Arabia, India, China, Turkestan and Bokhara.
Even the Arabs, Mr. Disraeli terms Jews upon horseback;
they are however, the sons of Ishmael— half-brothers to the
Jews. These are the lowest of the Jewish people in wealth,
intelligence and religion, though said to be superior to their
Gentile neighbors in each. The second and most numerous
class is found in Northern Africa, Egypt, Palestine, Syria,
Mesopotamia, Persia, Asia Minor, European Turkey, Po-
land, Russia and parts of Austria. In these are found the
strictly orthodox, Talmudical Jews; the sect Chasidim, who
are the representatives of the Zealots of Josephus, and the
small but most interesting sect Karaites, who reject all Rab-
binical traditions, and are the only Jews who adhere to the
strict letter of the Scriptures. This class is represented as
being very ignorant of all except Jewish learning— it being
prohibited to study any other. Yet they alone are regarded
by scholars as the proper expounders of ancient Talmudical
Judaism. As might be inferred from the character of the
governments under which they live, their political condi-
tion is most unhappy and insecure, and their increase in
wealth and their social progress are slow. The third and
last class are those of Central and Western Europe, and
the United States. These are by far the most intelligent and
civilized of their race, not only keeping pace with the prog-
ress of their Gentile neighbors, but contributing to it
largely. Their Oriental mysticism seems to have given
place to the stronger practical ideas of Western Europe,
with which they have come in contact, and they have em-
.80-
. "the scattered nation" •
braced them fully. They are denominated "reforming" in
their tenets, attempting to eliminate the Talmudical tradi-
tions which cumber and obscure their creed, and adapt it
somewhat to the spirit of the age, though in tearing this
away, they have also, say the theologians, dispensed with
much of the Old Testament itself. In fact, they have become
simply Unitarians or Deists.
Many curious facts concerning them are worthy to be
noted. In various cities of the Eastern World they have
been for ages, and in some are yet, huddled into crowded
and filthy streets or quarters, in a manner violative of all
the rules of health, yet it is a notorious fact that they have
ever suffered less from pestilential diseases than their Chris-
tian neighbors. So often have the black wings of epidemic
plagues passed over them, and smitten all around them,
that ignorance and malignity frequently accused them of
poisoning the wells and fountains and of exercising sorcery.
They have also in a very noticeable degree been exempt
from consumption and all diseases of the respiratory func-
tions, which in them are said by physicians to be wonder-
fully adapted to enduring the vicissitudes of all temper-
atures and climates. The average duration of Gentile life
is computed at 26 years— it certainly does not reach 30;
that of the Jew, according to a most interesting table of
statistics which I have seen, is full 37 years. The number
of infants born to the married couple exceeds that to the
Gentile races, and the number dying in infancy is much
smaller. In height they are nearly three inches lower than
the average of other races; the width of their bodies with
outstretched arms is one inch shorter than the height, whilst
in other races it is eight inches longer on the average. But
on the other hand, the length of the trunk is much greater
with the Jew, in proportion to height than with other races.
In the Negro the trunk constitutes 32 per cent of the height
of the whole body, in the European 34 per cent, in the Jew
• 81 .
• ZEBULON B. VANCE •
36 per cent. What these physical peculiarities have had to
do with their wonderful preservation and steady increase, I
leave for the philosophers to explain.
Their social life is, if possible, still more remarkable.
There is neither prostitution nor pauperism, and but little
abject poverty among them. They have some paupers, it is
true but they trouble neither you nor me. Crime in the ma-
lignant, wilful sense of that word is exceedingly rare. I have
never known but one Jew convicted of any offense beyond
the grade of a misdemeanor, though I am free to say, I
have known many a one who would have been improved by
a little hanging. They contribute liberally to all Gentile
charities in the communities where they live; they ask
nothing from the Gentiles for their own. If a Jew is broken
down in business, the others set him up again or give him
employment and his children have bread. If one is in trou-
ble the others stand by him with counsel and material aid,
remembering the command, "Thou shalt open thine hand
wide unto thy brethren, and shall surely lend him sufficient
for his need, in that which he wanteth." Their average edu-
cation is far ahead of the races by whom they are sur-
rounded. I have never seen an adult Jew who could not
read, write and compute figures— especially the figures. Of
the four great human industries which conduce to the pub-
lic wealth, agriculture, manufacturing, mining and com-
merce, as a general rule they engage only in one. They are
neither farmers, miners, smiths, carpenters, mechanics or
artisans of any kind. They are merchants only, but as such,
own few or no ships, and they are rarely carriers of any
kind. They wander over the whole earth, but they are never
pioneers, and they found no colonies, because as I suppose,
being devoted to one business only, they lack the self-sus-
taining elements of those who build new states; and whilst
they engage individually in politics where they are not dis-
franchised, and contend for offices and honors like other
people, they yet seek nowhere political power or national
.82-
. "the scattered nation" •
aggregation. Dealers in every kind of merchandise, with
rare exceptions they manufacture none. They dwell exclu-
sively in towns, cities and villages, but as a general rule
do not own the property they live upon. They marry within
themselves entirely, and yet in defiance of well known nat-
ural laws, with regard to breeding "in and in," their race
does not degenerate. With them family government is per-
haps more supreme than with any other people. Divorce,
domestic discord, and disobedience to parents are almost
unknown among them.
The process by which they have become the leading
merchants, bankers, and financiers of the world is explained
by their history. In many places their children were not
permitted to enter the schools, or even to be enrolled in the
guilds of labor. Trade was therefore the only avenue left
open to them. In most countries they dared not or could
not own the soil. Why a nation of original agriculturists
ceased to cultivate the soil altogether is therefore only seem-
ingly inexplicable. All nations must have a certain propor-
tion of their population engaged in tilling the soil; as the
Jews have no common country they reside in all; and in
all countries they have the shrewdness to see that whilst it
is most honorable to plow, yet all men live more comfortably
than the plowman. In addition to which, as before inti-
mated, agriculture so fixed them to the soil that it would
have been impossible to evade persecution and spoliation.
They were constantly on the move, and their wealth must
therefore be portable and easily secreted— hence their early
celebrity as lapidaries, dealers in diamonds and precious
stones— and hence too, their introduction of bills of ex-
change. The utility of these great aids to commerce had
long been known to the world— perhaps by both Greek and
Roman— but could never be made available by them, be-
cause confidence in the integrity of each other did not exist
between the drawer and the drawee. But this integrity,
which the lordly merchants of the Christian and the Pagan
• 83 •
ZEBULON B. VANCE
world could not inspire, was found to exist in the persecuted
and despised Jew. So much for the lessons of adversity.
These arts diligently applied, at first from necessity, after-
wards from choice, in the course of centuries made the Jews
skillful above all men in the ways of merchandise and
money changing, and finally developed in them those pecu-
liar faculties and aptitudes for a calling which are brought
out as well in man by the special education of successive
generations, as in the lower animals. The Jew merchant
had this advantage, too, that whereas his Gentile competitor
belonged to a consolidated nation, confined to certain geo-
graphical limits, speaking a certain tongue, the aid, sym-
pathy and influence which he derived from social and po-
litical ties, were also confined to the limits of his nation.
But the Jew merchant belonged to a scattered nation, spread
out over the whole earth, speaking many tongues, and
welded together, not by social ties alone, but by the fierce
fires of suffering and persecution; and the aid, sympathy,
influence and information which he derived therefrom came
out of the utmost parts of the earth.
When after many centuries the flames of persecution had
abated so that the Jews were permitted more than bare life,
their industry, energy and talent soon placed them among
the important motive powers of the world. They entered
the fields of commerce in its grandest and most colossal
operations. They became the friends and counselors of
kings, the prime-ministers of empires, the treasurers of
republics, the movers of armies, the arbiters of public credit,
the patrons of art, and the critics of literature. We do not
forget the time in the near past when the peace of Europe
—of three worlds hung upon the Jewish Prime-Minister of
England. No people are so ready to accommodate them-
selves to circumstances. It was but recently that we heard of
an English Jew taking an absolute lease of the ancient
Persian Empire. The single family of Rothschild, the prog-
eny of a poor German Jew, who three generations ago sold
.84-
. "the scattered nation" •
curious old coins under the sign of a red shield, are now
the possessors of greater wealth and power than was Sol-
omon, when he could send 1,300,000 fighting men into the
field!
Twenty years ago, when this family was in the height
of its power, perhaps no sovereign in Europe could have
waged a successful war against its united will. Two cen-
turies since the ancestors of these Jewish money-kings
were skulking in the caverns of the earth or hiding in the
squalid outskirts of persecuting cities. Nor let it be sup-
posed that it is in this field alone we see the great effects
of Jewish intellect and energy. The genius which showed
itself capable of controlling the financial affairs of the world,
necessarily carried with it other great powers and capabil-
ities. The Jews in fact, under most adverse circumstances,
made their mark— a high and noble mark— in every other
department of human affairs. Christian clergymen have sat
at the feet of their Rabbis to be taught the mystic learning
of the East; Senates have been enrapt by the eloquence of
Jewish orators; courts have been convinced by the acumen
and learning of Jewish lawyers; vast throngs excited to the
wildest enthusiasm by Jewish histrionic and aesthetic art;
Jewish science has helped to number the stars in their
courses, to loose the bands of Orion and to guide Arcturus
with his sons.
Jewish literature has delighted and instructed all classes
of mankind and the world has listened with rapture and
with tears to Jewish melody and song. For never since its
spirit was evoked under the shadow of the vines on the
hills of Palestine to soothe the melancholy of her King, has
Judah's harp, whether in freedom or captivity, in sorrow or
joy, ceased to wake the witchery of its tuneful strings.
Time forbids that I should even name the greatest of
those who have distinguished themselves and made good
their claim to rank with the foremost of earth. No section
of the human family can boast a greater list of men and
.85-
• ZEBULON B. VANCE •
women entitled to be placed among the true children of
genius— going to make up the primacy of our race— in every
branch of human affairs, in every phase of human civiliza-
tion. Mr. Draper says that for four hundred years of the
middle ages— ages more dark and terrible to them than to
any others, they took the most philosophical and compre-
hensive view of things of all European people.
On the whole, and after due deliberation, I think it may
be truthfully said, that there is more of average wealth,
intelligence, and morality among the Jewish people than
there is among any other nation of equal numbers in the
world! If this be true— if it be half true— when we consider
the circumstances under which it has all been brought
about, it constitutes in the eyes of thinking men the most
remarkable moral phenomenon ever exhibited by any por-
tion of the human family. For not only has the world given
the Jew no help, but all that he is, he has made himself in
spite of the world— in spite of its bitter cruelty, its scorn
and unspeakable tyranny. The most he has ever asked,
certainly the most he has ever received, and that but rarely,
was to be left alone. To escape the sword, the rack, the fire,
and utter spoiling of his goods, has indeed, for centuries,
been to him a blessed heritage, as the shadow of a great
rock in a weary land.
The physical persecution of the Jews has measurably
ceased among all nations of the highest civilization. There
is no longer any proscription left upon their political rights
in any land where the English tongue is spoken. I am proud
of the fact. But there remains among us an unreasonable
prejudice of which I am heartily ashamed. Our toleration
will not be complete until we put it away also, as well as
the old implements of physical torture.
This age, and these United States in particular, so boast-
ful of toleration, presents some curious evidences of the
fact that the old spirit is not dead; evidences tending much
to show that the prejudices of 2000 years ago are still with
• 86-
. "the scattered nation" •
us. In Germany, a land more than all others indebted to the
genius and loyal energy of the Jews, a vast uprising against
them was lately excited for the sole reason, so far as one
can judge, that they occupy too many places of learning
and honor, and are becoming too rich!
In this, our own free and tolerant land, where wars have
been waged and constitutions violated for the benefit of
the African negro, the descendants of barbarian tribes who
for 4000 years have contributed nothing to, though in close
contact with the civilization of mankind, save as the Helots
contributed an example to the Spartan youth, and where
laws and partisan courts alike have been used to force him
into an equality with those whom he could not equal, we
have seen Jews, educated and respectable men, descendants
of those from whom we derive our civilization, kinsmen,
after the flesh, of Him whom we esteem as the Son of God
and Saviour of men, ignominiously ejected from hotels and
watering places as unworthy the association of men who
had grown rich by the sale of a new brand of soap or an
improved patent rat-trap!
I have never heard of one of these indecent thrusts at the
Jews without thinking of the dying words of Sergeant Both-
well when he saw his life's current dripping from the sword
of Burley: "Base peasant churl, thou hast spilt the blood
of a line of Kings."
Let us learn to judge the Jew as we judge other men—
by his merits. And above all, let us cease the abominable
injustice of holding the class responsible for the sins of the
individual. We apply this test to no other people.
Our principal excuse for disliking him now is that we
have injured him. The true gentleman, Jew or Gentile, will
always recognize the true gentleman, Jew or Gentile, and
will refuse to consort with an ill-bred impostor, Jew or
Gentile, simply because he is an ill-bred impostor.
The impudence of the low-bred Jew is not one whit more
detestable than the impudence of the low-bred Gentile, chil-
• 87-
ZEBU LON B. VANCE
dren of shoddy, who by countless thousands swarm into
doors opened for them by our democracy. Let us cry quits
on that score. Let us judge each other by our best not our
worst samples, and when we find gold let us recognize it.
Let us prove all things and hold fast that which is good.
Whilst it is a matter of just pride to us that there is
neither physical persecution nor legal proscription left upon
the civil rights of the Jews in any land where the English
tongue is spoken or the English law obtains, yet I consider
it a grave reproach not only to us, but to all Christendom
that such injustice is permitted anywhere. The recent bar-
barities inflicted upon them in Russia revive the recollection
of the darkest cruelties of the middle ages. That is one
crying outrage, one damned spot that blackens the fair
light of the nineteenth century, without the semblance of
excuse or the shadow of justification. That glare of burning
homes, those shrieks of outraged women, those wailings of
orphaned children go up to God, not only as witnesses
against the wretched savages who perpetrate them, but as
accusations also of those who permit them. How sad it is
again to hear that old cry of Jewish sorrow, which we had
hoped to hear no more forever! How shameful it is to know
that within the shadow of so-called Christian churches,
there are yet dark places filled with the habitations of
cruelty. No considerations of diplomacy or international
courtesy should for one moment stand in the way of their
stern and instant suppression.
The Jews are our spiritual fathers, the authors of our
morals, the founders of our civilization with all the power
and dominion arising therefrom, and the great peoples pro-
fessing Christianity and imbued with any of its noble spirit,
should see to it that justice and protection are afforded them.
By simply speaking with one voice it could be done, for no
power on earth could resist that voice. Every consideration
of humanity and international policy demands it. Their
unspeakable misfortunes, their inherited woes, their very
• 88 •
. "the scattered nation" •
helplessness appeal to our Christian chivalry, trumpet-
tongued in behalf of those wretched victims of a prejudice
for which tolerant Christianity is not altogether irrespon-
sible.
There are objections to the Jew as a citizen; many ob-
jections; some true and some false, some serious and some
trivial. It is said that industrially he produces nothing,
invents nothing, adds nothing to the public wealth; that he
will not own real estate, nor take upon himself those per-
manent ties which beget patriotism and become the hos-
tages of good citizenship; that he merely sojourns in the
land and does not dwell in it, but is ever in light marching
order and is ready to flit when the word comes to go. These
are true objections in the main, and serious ones, but I sub-
mit the fault is not his, even here.
"Quoth old Mazeppa, ill-betide
The school wherein I learned to ride."
These habits he learned by persecution. He dwelt every-
where in fear and trembling, and had no assurance of his
life. He was ever ready to leave because at any moment he
might be compelled to choose between leaving and death.
He built no house, because at any moment he and his little
ones might be thrust out of it to perish. He cherished no
love for the land because it cherished none for him, but was
cruel and hard and bitter to him. And yet history shows
that in every land where he has been protected he has been
a faithful and zealous patriot. Also since his rights have
been secured he has begun to show the same permanent
attachments to the soil as other people, and is rapidly build-
ing houses and in some places cultivating farms. These ob-
jections he is rapidly removing since we have removed their
cause.
So, too, the impression is sought to be made that he is
dishonest in his dealings with the Gentiles, insincere in his
professions, servile to his superiors and tyrannical to his
. 89 •
• ZEBULON B. VANCE •
inferiors, oriental in his habits and manner. That the Jew
•—meaning the class— is dishonest, I believe to be an atro-
cious calumny; and, considering that we derive all of our
notions of rectitude from the Jew, who first taught the
world that command, "Thou shalt not steal," and "Thou
shalt not bear false witness," we pay ourselves a shabby
compliment in thus befouling our teachers. Undoubtedly
there are Jewish scoundrels in great abundance; undoubt-
edly also there are Gentile scoundrels in greater abundance.
Southern reconstruction put that fact beyond a peradven-
ture. But our own scoundrels are orthodox, Jewish scoun-
drels are unbelievers— that is the difference. If a man robs
me I should thank him that he denies my creed too; he com-
pliments both me and it by the denial.
The popular habit is to regard an injury done to one by
a man of different creed as a double wrong; to me it seems
that the wrong is the greater coming from my own. To hold
also, as some do, that the sins of all people are due to their
creeds, would leave the sins of the sinners of my creed quite
unaccounted for. With some the faith of a scoundrel is all
important; it is not so with me.
All manner of crimes, including perjury, cheating and
over-reaching in trade, are unhesitatingly attributed to the
Jews, generally by their rivals in trade. Yet somehow they
are rarely proven to the satisfaction of even Gentile judges
and juries. The gallows clutches but few, nor are they found
in the jails and penitentiaries— a species of real estate which
I honor them for not investing in. I admit that there was
and is perhaps now a remnant of the feeling that it was legal
to spoil the Egyptians. Their constant life of persecution
would naturally inspire this feeling; their present life of
toleration and their business estimate of the value of char-
acter will as naturally remove it. Again and again, day by
day, we evince our Gentile superiority in the tricks of trade
and sharp practice. It is asserted by our proverbial exclama-
tion in regard to a particular piece of villainy, "That beats
.90-
. "the scattered nation" •
the Jews!" And I call your attention to the further fact
that, sharp as they undoubtedly are, they have found it im-
possible to make a living in New England. Outside of Bos-
ton, not fifty perhaps can be found in all that land of un-
suspecting integrity and modest righteousness. They have
managed to endure with longsuffering patience the knout
of the Czar and the bowstring of the Turk, but they have
fled for life from the presence of the wooden nutmegs and
the left-handed gimlets of Jonathan. Is there any man who
hears me tonight who, if a Yankee and a Jew were to
"lock horns" in a regular encounter of commercial wits,
would not give large odds on the Yankee? My own opinion
is that the genuine "guessing" Yankee, with a jack-knife
and a pine shingle could in two hours time whittle the smart-
est Jew in New York out of his homestead in the Abrahamic
covenant.
I agreed with Lord Macaulay that the Jew is what we
have made him. If he is a bad job, in all honesty we should
contemplate him as the handiwork of our own civilization.
If there be indeed guile upon his lips or servility in his man-
ner, we should remember that such are the legitimate fruits
of oppression and wrong, and that they have been, since the
pride of Judah was broken and his strength scattered, his
only means of turning aside the uplifted sword and the
poised javelin of him who sought to plunder and slay. In-
deed so long has he schemed and shifted to avoid injustice
and cruelty, that we can perceive in him all the restless
watchfulness which characterizes the hunted animal.
To this day the cast of the Jew's features in repose is
habitually grave and sad as though the very ploughshare of
sorrow had marked its furrows across their faces forever.
"And where shall Israel lave her bleeding feet?
And when shall Zion's songs again seem sweet,
And Judah's melody once more rejoice
The hearts that leaped before its heavenly voice?
Tribes of the wandering foot and weary heart
• 91 •
ZEBULON B. VANCE
How shall ye flee away and be at rest?
The wild dove hath her nest— the fox his cave-
Mankind their country— Israel but the grave."
The hardness of Christian prejudice having dissolved, so
will that of the Jew. The hammer of persecution having
ceased to beat upon the iron mass of their stubbornness, it
will cease to consolidate and harden, and the main strength
of their exclusion and preservation will have been lost. They
will perhaps learn that one sentence of our Lord's prayer,
which it is said is not to be found in the Talmud, and which
is the key-note of the difference between Jew and Gentile,
"Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them who trespass
against us."
If so, they will become as other men, and taking their
harps down from the willows, no longer refuse to sing the
songs of Zion because they are captives in a strange land.
I believe that there is a morning to open yet for the Jews
in Heaven's good time, and if that opening shall be in any
way commensurate with the darkness of the night through
which they have passed, it will be the brightest that ever
dawned upon a faithful people.
I have stood on the summit of the very monarch of our
great Southern Alleghanies and seen the night flee away
before the chariot wheels of the God of day. The stars re-
ceded before the pillars of lambent fire that pierced the
zenith, a thousand ragged mountain peaks began to peer
up from the abysmal darkness, each looking through the
vapory seas that filled the gorges like an island whose "jut-
ting and confounded base was swilled by the wild and
wasteful ocean." As the curtain was lifted more and more
and the eastern brightness grew in radiance and in glory,
animate nature prepared to receive her Lord; the tiny snow-
bird from its nest in the turf began chirping to its young;
the silver pheasant sounded its morning drum-beat for its
mate in the boughs of the fragrant fir; the dun deer rising
slowly from his mossy couch and stretching himself in
.92-
• "the scattered nation" •
graceful curves, began to crop the tender herbage; whilst
the lordly eagle rising straight upward from his home on
the crag, with pinions wide spread, bared his golden breast
to the yellow beams and screamed his welcome to the sun
in his coming! Soon the vapors of the night are lifted up
on shafts of fire, rolling and seething in billows of refulgent
flame, until when far overhead, they are caught upon the
wings of the morning breeze and swept away, perfect day
was established and there was peace. So may it be with this
long-suffering and immortal people. So may the real spirit
of Christ yet be so triumphantly infused amongst those
who profess to obey his teachings, that with one voice and
one hand they will stay the persecutions and hush the sor-
rows of these their wondrous kinsmen, put them forward
into the places of honor and the homes of love where all the
lands in which they dwell, shall be to them as was Jerusalem
to their fathers. So may the morning come, not to them
alone, but to all the children of men who, through much
tribulation and with heroic manhood have waited for its
dawning, with a faith whose constant cry through all the
dreary watches of the night has been, "Though he slay me,
yet will I trust in him!"
"Roll golden sun, roll swiftly toward the west,
Dawn happy day when many woes shall cease;
Come quickly Lord, thy people wait the rest
Of thine abiding peace!
No more, no more to hunger here for love;
No more to thirst for blessings long denied.
Judah! Thy face is foul with weeping, but above
Thou shalt be satisfied!"
• 93 •
Appendices
APPENDIX A
First Memorial Ceremony at Charlotte
Excerpts from report about memorial ceremony on April
16, 1894, at Charlotte, on the day before the funeral of Zeb-
ulon B. Vance, at Asheville, from The Charlotte Observer-.
Beautiful and touching speeches were made but the gem
of all was that of the long time law partner of the dead
Senator [Clement Dowd]. His voice was full of tears, his
whole being quivering with sincere and ill-suppressed emo-
tion, and it almost seemed that drops of blood from his lac-
erated heart lingered about the words which fell from his
lips. He said: "If I should say this bereavement came as a
personal one to me I should only say what was true of every
man, woman and child in the State, for the Governor was
loved by all. No man before him was ever so universally
loved. His image seemed to be engraved upon the hearts of
all his people. He was especially the friend of the common
people, even little children instinctively knew he was their
friend." The speaker told of two country men, who during
the late campaign inquired of him whether Vance was com-
ing to Charlotte. No, was the reply; he is not strong enough
to speak. "Oh, we don't want him to speak. We just want
to see him one more time," said one. "I would ride ten miles
through the rain the worst day in the winter just to get to
see the side of his face," said the other.
"No one thoroughly knew him," continued the speaker.
"I did not. He was not built to the measure of other men.
He was a great reader and student of history. He loved old
books and ancient stories and characters. He was fond of
taking Cyrus, Alexander, Caesar, Hannibal, and getting
the gist of their campaigns, comparing them with similar
campaigns of modern times. He even found time to make
detours into astronomy and geology. He had many adver-
•97.
APPENDIX A
saries; he was in many battles and conflicts, but I don't
think he had an enemy when he died. In his great big heart
there was no place for enmity. His life was pure, and no
scandal was ever attached to his name. They will lay him
to rest among the mountains where his boyhood and early
life were spent, and from that lofty couch he will be among
the very first to catch the dawn of the eternal day."
This surpassingly eloquent peroration was greeted with
an unsuppressed and uncontrollable outburst of applause,
which, yet at the same time seemed somehow to be muffled
and in mourning.
The Rev. Dr. Preston, pastor of the First Presbyterian
church, said he thought one of the most remarkable things
about this remarkable man, and which made most for his
remarkable career, was the training of his mother. She had
laid the foundation for his character and reputation to rest
upon. He pictured the Governor in his old pew in the First
Presbyterian church in former days; he was not a com-
municant then, but had the knowledge of his mother's train-
ing as a holy inspiration, but it was not till after the death
of his wife that he connected himself with any church; that
most appalling family affliction, the greatest calamity that
can befall any man, was the chart and compass which
guided him to port. Governor Vance was then found, not
uniting with some strong church, but with a little strug-
gling church in Raleigh, and recently, when occasion came
to remove his membership, he placed it in the old church in
Charlotte, so fragrant to him, doubtless, with sweet asso-
ciations.
Perhaps there was never before a memorial meeting held
in honor of a great Gentile prince at which an Israelite stood
up and paid such a tribute as did Mr. Samuel Wittkowsky
to the memory of Zebulon B. Vance. He spoke of how Vance
had won the hearts of the Hebrews of this State and country
by the full measure of justice he accorded them in his fa-
mous lecture on the "Scattered Nation," and he said no
• 98 •
• APPENDIX A
Israelite ever voted against Vance. Such a blow has fallen
upon our State and country that it will take long years to
overcome it. In common with the million and a half of
North Carolina's sons and daughters I wish to give expres-
sion not only to my feelings personally on this melancholy
event, but I speak also for my race in the State and through-
out the Union. The deceased has ever by his words and
acts demonstrated that he was their friend. And now, fel-
low-citizens, let us perpetuate his memory and teach our
children to instruct their children and their children's chil-
dren to revere his memory, and that wherever their lot may
be cast and they are asked where they came from, to point
with pride to the State which gave birth to Zebulon B.
Vance.
The next speaker was Col. Hamilton C. Jones, and his
was a very beautiful tribute, indeed, and deserves a full
report which a lack of time forbids. He related among other
things that after Vance had been elected to the United
States Senate, while Governor of the State, and was about
leaving for Washington, I saw him and said this honor
must be very pleasing and gratifying to you, and he replied
as God is my judge, be assured I would rather serve the
people as Governor than to be the foremost Senator in the
United States. Col. Jones said Senator Vance was easily
first among all the statesmen North Carolina had produced;
that he did not understand the art of mere politics. His
triumphs came from honest purpose and right conviction.
As reported in Dowd, Clement, Life of Zebulon B. Vance (Charlotte,
1897), p. 321.
.99-
APPENDIX B
Second Memorial Ceremony at Charlotte
Excerpts from report about memorial ceremony on April 18,
1894, at Charlotte, on the day after the funeral of Zebulon B.
Vance at Asheville, from The Daily Observer:
"Vance, of, by and for the people," said Capt. Ardrey
yesterday.
Surely no man was ever loved as this one. Country and
town assembled yesterday to do honor to his memory.
The auditorium held between two and three thousand
people. An audience composed of high and low, rich and
poor, country and town people. Just such an assemblage
has not been seen here before. The country people began
coming in early yesterday morning. Every township in the
county was represented. All came with like impulse and
sentiment— with fervid desire to pay tribute to "Zeb Vance,"
the people's idol.
There were on the rostrum, besides the singers, Rev. Dr.
Preston, Major C. Dowd, Capt. W. E. Ardrey, Major S. W.
Reid, Dr. J. B. Alexander, Col. J. E. Brown, Messrs. J. M.
Kirkpatrick, C. W. Tillett, J. P. Alexander, John Springs
Davidson, H. K. Reid, and J. Hervy Henderson.
After the hymn, Capt. W. E. Ardrey addressed the au-
dience.
"We have met," said he, "to do honor to a great man.
This meeting was called in honor of our great Senator,
Zebulon B. Vance. He was of the people, by the people and
for the people, and he lives in the hearts of the people. It
is a delight to honor this great and glorious man. While
North Carolina has its Gastons, Grahams and others, she
can boast of only one Zeb Vance. He was her great leader.
. 100.
• APPENDIX B •
Wherever he lead the people followed. He had no will of
his own when her interests were at stake. His bidding was
from God and his country. He was poor because he was
honest. His name will be handed down with that of Web-
ster, Calhoun and other great men. Whoever his mantel
falls on will receive a pure and spotless one. We thank God
to-day, my friends, that he died with clean hands and a
pure heart. Let us teach our children to honor and revere
the name of Zebulon Baird Vance."
• • •
Mr. John Springs Davidson was the next speaker. He
paid an enthusiastic and loving tribute to Senator Vance.
"It is the duty of every citizen in the United States to pay
tribute to Senator Vance," said he. "If God had spared his
life he would have occupied the highest position in the gift
of the people. [Great applause]. I say to the young men of
Mecklenburg to take Zeb Vance as their model. There may
be a Zeb Vance in this audience. Emulate his example. He
was the greatest man of this day and of this generation."
Mr. J. P. Alexander next paid his tribute to Vance. He
dwelt particularly on the war record of the great war Gov-
ernor. "Where is the State," said he, "that has produced
another Vance, or any one like him? There was no Mason's
and Dixon's line separating the good will of the people. The
North honored him as well as did the South. He was the
greatest man America has ever produced."
The gem of all the talks was reserved for the last— that
of Mr. C. W. Tillett. From the moment he repeated the
first sad words— "Zeb Vance is dead"— through every tear-
bedimmed utterance, the people sat enrapt, and handker-
chief after handkerchief went f aceward to catch the falling
tears:
. 101 •
APPENDIX B
"Zeb Vance is dead! Few and short are these cruel words
which men with lips compressed and cheeks all blanched
have whispered one to another; and yet they bear the mes-
sage of the greatest grief which ever yet has filled the Old
North State.
"Zeb Vance is dead! Ring out the funeral bells and let
their mournful tones re-echo in the empty chambers of the
hearts once filled with gladsome sounds of his loved voice.
"Zeb Vance is dead! And mirth herself hath put on
mourning; and laughter, child of his most genial brain,
hath hid her face in tears.
"Zeb Vance is dead! The fires of party strife are quenched;
and throbbing hearts and tear-beclouded eyes tell more
than words of grandest eloquence the anguish of the peo-
ple's minds and how they loved him.
"Zeb Vance is dead! Soldier, statesman, patriot, friend!
In war and peace, the one of all her sons to whom his mother
State looked most for succor and relief; and can it be that
in the days to come, when dreaded dangers threaten all
around, we nevermore can call for him before whose match-
less powers in days gone by our enemies have quailed and
fled?
"Zeb Vance is dead! His was a name you could conjure
with, and oftimes in the past, when this loved Common-
wealth of ours has been stirred to its inmost depths, and
men knew not which way to go nor what to say, the cry was
sounded forth that 'Vance is coming,' and from the moun-
tain fastness of the west and the everglades of the eastern
plains, the people came who never would come forth to
hear another living man, and gathering around in countless
multitudes, they hung upon his every word with eager eye
and listening ear, and all he told them they believed because
'our Vance' had said it.
"Zeb Vance is dead! And where shall come the man to
tell the world soul-inspiring story of his hero life? How,
coming forth from humble home, he baffled and o'ercame
. 102-
APPENDIX B
the fates that would have crushed beneath their feet a man
of meaner mould; how serving faithfully and well in every
trust committed unto him, he soon won first place in the
hearts of all his countrymen and held that place for three
score years unto the end; how, when his native land was
plunged in throes of civil strife, he went forth in the front
rank to defend and save her and fought with valor all her
foes; how called to rule as chief executive in times that tried
men's souls, he ruled so wisely and so well; how when the
war was over and the cause was lost— when down upon his
bleeding, prostrate country came the horde of vampires
from the North to suck the last remaining drops of life
blood from his people, he rose with power almost divine
and drove them back; and then with gentle hand he caused
the wounds to heal and his loved land to prosper once again
as in the years gone by; and how at last, when after years
of faithful, honest toil, upon his noble form was laid the icy
hand of death, he bowed his head in meek submission to His
will and yielded up to God his manly soul! Who can be
found to sing the praise of such a one, and who can speak
the anguish of the people's hearts at his untimely death?
"Zeb Vance is dead! He was the friend and tribune of
the people. Though he rose to place where he held converse
with the great and mighty of the earth, his sympathetic
heart was open wide to all mankind, and his strong arm was
first stretched forth to lift the lowliest of the sons of men
that cried to him for help, and in the Nation's Senate halls
his voice was ever lifted up to plead the cause of the down-
trodden and oppressed against the favored classes and the
money kings.
"Zeb Vance is dead! And when he died, a poor man died;
for though he stood where oft there was within his grasp
the gains of millions if he would but swerve from right and
reach it, he cast it all aside with scorn, and dying, left his
sons and all the people of his land the priceless legacy of an
honest and untarnished name.
. 103 •
APPENDIX B
"Zeb Vance is dead! And yet he lives; the influence of his
noble words and honest life can never die; and in the years
to come men gathering round their firesides at the evening
hour shall tell their sons of him and how he scorned a lie and
scorned dishonest gains.
"Zeb Vance is dead! But he shall live forever more. Oh,
blessed truth, which Mary's Son, the God-man, taught
when standing near the tomb with His all-conquering foot
upon the skull of death, He called forth Lazarus unto life,
and told a listening world the thrilling truth that whosoever
lived and in His name believed should never die.
"Zeb Vance is dead! If it be truth
'That men may rise on stepping stones
Of their dead selves to higher things,'
"Oh, grander truth, that a nation too may rise on stepping
stones of her dead hero sons unto a higher life. And God
vouchsafe that our own State, while weeping o'er the grave
of him, her best-loved, most honored son, may yet be thereby
lifted into a grander, nobler life."
As reported in Dowd, p. 323.
.104-
APPENDIX C
Eulogies in the United States Senate
A memorial ceremony was held in the United States Senate
on January 19, 1895. Nine Senators delivered eulogies. Among
them was Senator Matt W. Ransom from North Carolina.
These eulogies were in addition to those delivered at the time
of Vance's decease on April 14, 1894. Excerpts from Senator
Ransom's address :
[Address of Mr. Ransom.]
Mr. President: The Senate is asked to render its last
duties of honor and sorrow to the memory of the Hon.
Zebulon Baird Vance, late a Senator from North Carolina.
In this Chamber on the 16th of last April, two days after
his death, the Senate lighted its black torches around the
lifeless form of that most honored and beloved son of our
State, and his mortal figure, covered with the white flowers
of spring and love, and hallowed by the sacred devotions
of religion, passed amid tears like a shadow from these
portals forever. To-day his associates on this floor are here
to place on the ever-living annals of the Senate the record
of their admiration and affection for his virtues.
In 1878 he was elected to the Senate, and until he died
remained a member of this body, having been elected four
times a Senator. His record in the Senate is part of the
nation's history. From the beginning he was an active,
earnest debater, a constant, faithful worker, a dutiful, de-
voted Senator, aspiring and laboring for the welfare and
honor of the whole country. He was at all times on the
important committees of the body, and took a prominent
part in the discussion of almost every leading question. He
was the unceasing advocate of revenue reform, uncom-
promisingly opposed to civil service, and the ardent friend
of silver money and its free coinage by the Government.
. 105 •
APPENDIX C
He vigilantly defended the rights, honor, and interests of
the Southern States, not from sectional passion or preju-
dice, but because it was his duty as a patriot to every State
and to the Union. He was bold, brave, open, candid, and
without reserve. He desired all the world to know his opin-
ions and positions and never hesitated to avow them.
His heart every moment was in North Carolina. His de-
votion to the State and people was unbounded; his solicitude
for her welfare, his deep anxiety in all that concerned her,
and his ever readiness to make every sacrifice in her behalf
was daily manifested in all his words and actions. Senator
Vance was an uncommon orator. He spoke with great
power. His style was brief, clear, and strong. His state-
ments were accurate and definite, his arguments compact
and forcible, his illustrations unsurpassed in their fitness.
His wit and humor were the ever-waiting and ready hand-
maids to his reasoning, and always subordinated to the
higher purpose of his speech. They were torchbearers, ever
bringing fresh light. He always instructed, always inter-
ested, always entertained, and never wearied or fatigued
an audience, and knew when to conclude. The Senate al-
ways heard him with pleasure, and the occupants of the gal-
leries hung upon his lips, and with bended bodies and out-
stretched necks would catch his every word as it fell.
He rarely, if ever, spoke without bringing down ap-
plause. His wit was as inexhaustible as it was exquisite.
His humor was overflowing, fresh, sparkling like bubbling
drops of wine in a goblet; but he husbanded these rare re-
sources of speech with admirable skill, and never displayed
them for ostentation. They were weapons of offense and
defense, and were always kept sharp and bright and ready
for use. He was master of irony and sarcasm, but there was
no malice, no hatred in his swift and true arrows. Mortal
wounds were often given, but the shafts were never pois-
oned. It was the strength of the bow and the skill of the
archer that sent the steel through the heart of its victim.
. 106 •
APPENDIX C
But strength, force, clearness, brevity, honesty of convic-
tion, truth, passion, good judgment, were the qualities that
made his speech powerful and effective.
He believed what he said. He knew it was true; he felt
its force himself; his heart was in his words; he was ready
to put place, honor, life itself, upon the issue. This was
the secret of his popularity, fame, and success as a speaker.
He studied his speeches with the greatest care, deliberated,
meditated upon them constantly, arranged the order of his
topics with consummate discretion, introduced authorities
from history, and very often from sacred history, presented
some popular faith as an anchor to his ship, and concluded
with a sincere appeal to the patriotic impulses of the people.
No speaker ever resorted to the bayonet more frequently.
He did not skirmish; he marched into the battle, charged
the center of the lines, and never failed to draw the blood
of the enemy. Sometimes he was supreme in manner, in
words, in thought, in pathos. He possessed the thunderbolts,
but, like Jove, he never trifled with them; he only invoked
them when gigantic perils confronted his cause. In 1876,
upon his third nomination for Governor, speaking to an
immense audience in the State-house Square at Raleigh,
he held up both hands in the light of the sun and with sol-
emn invocation to Almighty God declared that they were
white and stainless, that not one cent of corrupt money had
ever touched their palms. The effect was electric; the state-
ment was conviction and conclusion. The argument was
unanswerable. It was great nature's action. It was elo-
quence. It was truth.
Senator Vance's integrity and uprightness in public and
in private life were absolute; they were unimpeached and
unimpeachable; he was honest; it is the priceless inher-
itance which he leaves to his family, his friends, his coun-
try. He was an honest man. Calumny fell harmless at his
feet; the light dissipated every cloud and he lived contin-
ually in its broad rays; his breastplate, his shield, his armor
. 107 •
APPENDIX C
was the light, the truth. There was no darkness, no mys-
tery, no shadow upon his bright standard.
• • •
He had not the wisdom and virtue of Macon; he was
not like Badger, a master of argument, he was not like
Graham, a model of dignity and learning; he had not the
superb speech and grand passion of Mangum; he wanted
the tenacious and inexorable logic of Bragg; but in all the
endowments, qualities, faculties, and attainments that make
up the orator and the statesmen he was the equal of either.
No man among the living or the dead has ever so possessed
and held the hearts of North Carolina's people. In their
confidence, their affection, their devotion, and their grat-
itude he stood unapproachable— without a peer. When he
spoke to them they listened to him with faith, with admi-
ration, with rapture and exultant joy. His name was ever
upon their lips. His pictures were in almost every household.
Their children by hundreds bore his beloved name, and
his words of wit and wisdom were repeated by every tongue.
What Tell was to Switzerland, what Bruce was to Scot-
land, what William of Orange was to Holland, I had almost
said what Moses was to Israel, Vance was to North Caro-
lina. I can give you but a faint idea of the deep, fervid,
exalted sentiment which our people cherished for their
greatest tribune. He was of them. He was one of them.
He was with them. His thoughts, his feelings, his words
were theirs. He was their shepherd, their champion, their
friend, their guide, blood of their blood, great, good, no-
ble, true, human like they were in all respects, no better,
but wiser, abler, with higher knowledge and profounder
learning.
Nor was this unsurpassed devotion unreasonable or with-
out just foundation. For more than the third of a century,
for upward of thirty years, in peace and in war, in prosperity
and in adversity, in joy and in sorrow, he had stood by them
. 108 •
APPENDIX C
like a brother— a defender, a preserver, a deliverer. He was
their martyr and had suffered for their acts. He was their
shield and had protected them from evil and from peril.
He had been with them— he had been with them and their
sons and brothers on the march, by the camp fires, in the
burning light of battle; beside the wounded and the dying;
in their darkest hours, amid hunger and cold, and famine
and pestilences, his watchful care had brought them com-
fort and shelter and protection. They remembered the gray
jackets, the warm blankets, the good shoes, the timely
food, the blessed medicines, which his sympathy and pro-
vision had brought them. In defeat, amid tumult, amid ruin,
humiliation, and the loss of all they had, he had been their
adviser; he had guided them through the wilderness of their
woes and brought them safely back to their rights and all
their hopes. He had been to them like the north star to the
storm-tossed and despairing mariner. He had been greater
than Ulysses to the Greeks. He had preserved their priceless
honor, had saved their homes, and was the defender of their
liberties. He was their benefactor. Every object around
them reminded them of his care, every memory recalled,
every thought suggested, his usefulness and their gratitude.
The light from their school-houses spoke of his services to
their education. The very sight of their graves brought back
to their hearts his tender devotion to their sons. And the
papers and the wires with the rising of almost every sun
bore to their pure bosoms the news of his success, his tri-
umphs, and his honors. They were proud of him; they ad-
mired him— they loved him. These, these were the founda-
tions, the solid foundations, of his place in their minds and
in their hearts. From the wind-beaten and storm-bleached
capes of Hatteras to the dark blue mountain tops that di-
vide North Carolina and Tennessee there is not a spot from
which the name of Vance is not echoed with honor and
love. But his influence and his fame were not confined
within State lines.
. 109 .
APPENDIX C
In New England the sons of the brave Puritans admired
his love of liberty, his independence of thought, his free-
dom of speech, his contempt for pretensions, and his ab-
horrence of deceit. The hardy miners in the far West and
on the Pacific hills felt his friendship and were grateful for
his services. Virginia loved him as the vindicator of her
imperiled rights and honor. From the farms and fields and
firesides of the husbandmen of the Republic there came to
him the greeting of friends, for he was always the advocate
of low taxes and equal rights and privileges to all men.
From all the South he was looked upon as the representa-
tive of their sorrow and the example of their honor; and
all over the civilized world the people of Israel— "the scat-
tered nation"— everywhere bowed with uncovered heads
to the brave man who had rendered his noble testimony
and a tribute to the virtues of their race. Even the officers,
the sentinels, and watchmen over him in the Old Capitol
Prison, in which he was confined on the alleged and wrong-
ful charge that he had violated the laws of war, were spell-
bound by his genial spirit and became his devoted friends
up to the hour of his death. His genius, his ability, his hu-
manity, his long-continued public service, his great physical
suffering, a martyrdom to his duty, the sorcery of his wit,
the magic of his humor, and the courage of his convictions
had attracted the universal sympathy and admiration of the
American people.
In the brief summary in the Directory is embraced a
great life: County attorney, member of the State house of
commons; Representative in two Congresses; captain and
colonel in the Southern army; three times elected Gover-
nor of his State, and four times elected to the Senate of the
United States. What a record and what a combination! A
great statesman, a good soldier, a rare scholar, a successful
lawyer, an orator of surpassing power and eloquence, and
a man popular and beloved as few men have ever been!
. 110.
APPENDIX C
Great in peace and great in war, equal to every fortune,
superior to adversity, and, greater still, superior to pros-
perity! Successful in everything which he attempted, emi-
nent in every field in which he appeared, and fitted for every
effort which he undertook!
He was master of political science and distinguished
in scholarship and literature. His political speeches were
models of popular oratory and his literary addresses were
compositions of chaste excellence. He wrote an electric edi-
torial and drafted a legislative bill with equal clearness
and brevity. His pen and his tongue were of equal quality.
He used both with equal power. He wrote much; he spoke
more. Everything emanating from him wore his own like-
ness. He borrowed from no man. He imitated no man and
no man could imitate him. He was unique, original, won-
derful, incomprehensible unless he was a genius with fac-
ulties and powers of extraordinary and exceptional char-
acter.
His temper was admirable, calm, well balanced, serene.
He cared less for trifles than any man I ever knew. He
brushed them away as a lion shakes the dust from his mane.
In this respect he was a giant. He was like Samson break-
ing the frail withes that bound his limbs. He was never
confused, rarely impatient, seldom nervous, and never
weak.
He was merciful in the extreme. Suffering touched him
to the quick. He was compassion itself to distress. He was
as tender as a gentle woman to the young, the weak, the
feeble. He was full of charity to all men, charitable to
human frailty in every shape and form and phase. He had
deep, powerful impulses, strong and passionate resent-
ments; in the heat of conflict he was inexorable, but his gen-
erosity, his magnanimity, his sense of justice were deeper
and stronger and better than the few passing passions of
his proud nature. To his family and friends he was all ten-
. Ill •
• APPENDIX C
derness and indulgence. His great heart always beat in
duty, with sympathy, with the highest chivalry to woman.
• • •
On the night of the 16th of April last we took his casket
from these walls. We bore it across the Potomac— through
the bosom of Virginia, close by the grave of Washington,
almost in sight of the tombs of Jefferson and Madison,
over the James, over the North and the South Roanoke,
over the unknown border line of the sister States— to the
sad heart of his mother State. The night was beautiful.
The white stars shed their hallowed radiance upon earth
and sky. The serenity was lovely. The whole heavens al-
most seemed a happy reunion of the constellations. With
the first light of day the people, singly, in groups, in com-
panies, in crowds, in multitudes, met us everywhere along
the way— both sexes— all ages— all races— all classes and
conditions. Their sorrow was like the gathering clouds in
morning, ready to drop every moment in showers.
We carried him to the State house in Raleigh, the scene
of his greatest trials and grandest triumphs; the heart of
the State melted over her dead son. Her brightest jewel
had been taken away! We left Raleigh in the evening, and
passing over the Neuse, over the Yadkin, over the Catawba,
up to the summit of the Blue Ridge, we placed the urn
with its noble dust on the brow of his own mountain, the
mountain he loved so well. There he sleeps in peace and
honor. On that exalted spot the willow and the cypress,
emblems of sorrow and mourning, can not grow, but the
bay and the laurel, the trees of fame, will there flourish
and bloom in perpetual beauty and glory. There will his
great spirit, like an eternal sentinel of liberty and truth,
keep watch over his people.
Senators, I feel how unable I have been to perform this
sacred duty. It would have been one of the supreme joys
of my life to have done justice to the life and character of
. 112 •
APPENDIX C
this great and good man, to have enshrined his memory
in eloquence like his own. But whatever may have been
the faults of these words, I have spoken from a heart full of
sorrow for his death and throbbing with admiration and
pride for his virtues.
United States Congress, 53rd, 3rd Session, Memorial Addresses on Life
and Character of Zebulon B. Vance. (Washington, 1895)
. 113 •
APPENDIX D
Address at Unveiling of Statue
at Capitol Square
The statue of Zebulon B. Vance on Capitol Square, Raleigh,
was unveiled on August 22, 1900. Richard H. Battle, long-
time colleague of Vance, was the principal speaker. Here are
excerpts from his address:
Z. B. VANCE.
RICHARD H. BATTLE. *
I will be pardoned for a personal allusion in saying that
I was selected to address you on this interesting occasion,
rather than an orator like Ransom, Waddell, Jarvis, Ben-
nett, Robbins, or some other eloquent man associated with
him in public life, because it was known to those having
the selection in charge that I was more intimately ac-
quainted with Vance than any of them, and that I probably
best knew the thoughts of his heart and the motives of his
conduct. Such I believe to be the fact. We were contem-
poraries at Chapel Hill, and fellow members of the same
literary society, he entering as a law student and taking
a partial course with the senior class, when a young man
just twenty-one, and I an impressionable youth of fifteen
years. I was his private secretary from the day of his in-
auguration as Governor, September 8, 1862, for two years,
and then, by his appointment, State Auditor, and often his
legal counsel in questions and cases growing out of the
* From an address delivered at the unveiling of the Vance statue in
Capitol Square, Raleigh, N. C, August 22, 1900.
. 114-
APPENDIX D
conscript law, until we left the Capitol, April 12, 1865, the
day before its occupation by Sherman. During these three
years, while his labors were herculean and his anxieties
intense, I was in daily association with him, sometimes in
the privacy of his home, and I had the best of opportunities
to hear what he said, to see what he did, and to sound the
depths of his great soul. Then and ever afterwards he
treated me with the kindness and confidence and (may I
not say?) with the affection of an older brother. I would
have been blind indeed not to have learned his real char-
acter, and callous indeed not to have felt for him the affec-
tion of a brother.
If then, in a cursory review of the leading events of his
life and an attempt to delineate his character, I seem to be
influenced by a natural bias, I can only say, I try to tell
things as they were, and remind you that I am only giving
reasons for the verdict of the people, attested by what we
see here to-day, that taking into consideration the many
elements which constitute greatness, and measuring all her
sons by its many standards, in all the history of North Caro-
lina Zebulon B. Vance was her greatest son. For Senatorial
wisdom and the exercise of the civic virtues of a Cincin-
nati, we may assign the pre-eminence to Nathaniel Macon;
for polished statesmanship, in times of peace, to William
Gaston or William A. Graham; for profundity as an advo-
cate and a logician, to George E. Badger; as a great jurist,
to Thomas Ruffin; for the graces of magnificent oratory, to
Willie P. Mangum; for the talent to develop the internal
resources of a State, to John M. Morehead; but in achieve-
ment as a leader, in inducing others to follow him by the
strength of his personality, for what he said and what he
did, in peace and in war, towards shaping the destiny of
the State and for promoting the welfare of the people,
Vance was ahead of them all.
Some writer has said that it takes three generations to
. 115 •
APPENDIX D
make a gentleman. The history of Western North Caro-
lina shows that it took three generations of heroic and
patriotic citizens to make our Vance. His father was David
Vance, and his mother, Margaret, a daughter of Zebulon
Baird; and the Vances and the Bairds, sturdy Scotch-Irish
people, from Kings Mountain down, were patriots and
leading citizens. He inherited from such ancestors a spirit
of independence, a love of freedom, and a reverence for the
true, the pure, and the good, along with a strong mind and
sound body. He inherited little else; for his father died when
he was a boy, leaving a widow and eight children to be sup-
ported on a small farm, and besides a few slaves, scarcely
more personal property than was necessary to pay his debts
and funeral expenses. So Zebulon was a poor boy, who had
to make his own way in the world. When about twelve
years old, his father sent him across the mountains on
horse-back, to enter as a pupil in a high school, known as
Washington College, in East Tennessee; but he was soon
called home by the mortal illness of his father, whose bed-
side he reached only in time to see him die. All the educa-
tion, in schools, he then had or acquired afterwards, until
he became of age, was obtained in little schools in the neigh-
borhood of his native home. That home was about ten miles
northwest of Asheville, in the county of Buncombe, and
but a few hundred yards from the French Broad River.
Born and reared in the shadows of the highest peaks of the
Blue Ridge Mountains, with Mount Mitchell and Pisgah
in full view from the surrounding hills, and with the music
of the mountain streams and birds in the air, the boy, en-
dowed with uncommon intelligence and an active imagina-
tion, was early inspired with a love of his native land, while
his soul was attuned to the poetry of nature. Patriotism and
poetry, lofty sentiments, are closely akin; and these senti-
ments most abound where nature is most picturesque and
grand; where the mists of morning are dispelled from glow-
. 116 •
APPENDIX D
ing peaks by the rising sun, and the lengthening shadows
of evening change the form and color of cloud, forest, and
mountain; where rushing streams and leaping cascades
furnish to eyes which can see, and ears attuned to hear, a
beauty and charm unknown to dwellers among the foot-
hills or on the level lands below. The intelligent inhabitants
of such a region learn to love their homes intensely, and are
ever ready to fight and die for them. So it was, ever, with
the Swiss and the Highland Scotch, where mountains
echoed and re-echoed their patriotic songs; and we read in
sacred history that when the chosen people were taken by
their conquerors from the mountains and hills of Galilee
and Judea, and carried captive to the plains of Babylon,
they "hung their harps upon the willows" and wept tears
of despair for their country. Certain it is that, in my obser-
vation of the great and patriotic men of our State, her two
most devoted sons were born and reared among the moun-
tains of Buncombe: David L. Swain and Zebulon B. Vance.
Inspired alike by the poetry of the Bible and of nature,
their souls were open to all high and patriotic emotions. At
first their love was given to their native homes; but as the
sphere of their lives and labor widened it was extended to
State and country. Was it due to this special quality or vir-
tue, apparent in them, that they, each, became the Chief
Magistrate of the State at the early age of thirty-two years,
when younger than any other in our long list of Governors?
• • •
But Vance's right to the epithet of "The War Governor
of the South" is due as much to the earnest support of the
Confederate cause by his State through him as its executive
head, as to what he did for its people, their protection under
the law, and their general welfare. For nearly three years,
from September 8, 1862, to the evening he left Raleigh,
April 12, 1865, to avoid capture by Sherman, he did all
.117-
APPENDIX D
that vigilance, zeal, and energy could do to have and keep
every man to whom Lee, Johnston, and others were entitled,
as soldiers, at the front. To him it is due, largely, that
the seventy-five regiments and some unattached commands
from North Carolina were kept fuller than those from any
other State, notwithstanding that the bodies of more North
Carolina dead strewed the battlefields of the country than
those of any other State; that quite one-sixth of the Confed-
erate troops hailed from this State; that we had a soldier
for nearly every voter; and that one-fifth the Confederates
surrendered by Lee at Appomattox, and one-half surren-
dered by Johnston at Greensboro, were North Carolinians.
And what was the testimony of our great captain, Robert E.
Lee, as to the value of Vance's service to his army? In the
winter of 1863-64, in view of the disasters of Gettysburg
and Vicksburg the summer before, desertion was depleting
his ranks and despondency was settling like a pall over his
army and the country. Governor Vance saw that the good
name of his State and its soldiers was imperiled, and he was
moved to leave his office at Raleigh, visit the army, and
make to brigades and divisions, in which there were North
Carolina troops, those wonderful speeches whereby hope
was substituted for despondency, and our battered reg-
iments, from other States as well as this, were nerved again
with the courage and resolve to do or to die. Was it not
partly due to this campaign of oratory that General Lee,
who had double or treble his numbers and the world's re-
sources at his command, from the Rapidan to Petersburg,
and to make himself the peer of Hannibal, Frederick, and
Washington, and his noble army to share the immortality
of the Spartan band at Thermopylae? It is reported that he
said that Vance's visits and speeches were worth as much
to him as 50,000 recruits. After hearing some of those
speeches, Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, who followed him from
corps to corps and from division to division, asserted that if
. 118 •
APPENDIX D
oratory is to be measured by its effects, Governor Vance
was the greatest orator that ever lived.
• • •
Resolving to begin the practice of law again, he settled in
Charlotte. He first practiced in partnership with Col. H. C.
Jones and Gen. Robert D. Johnston, and afterwards as a
partner of Maj. Clement Dowd. His circuit was extensive,
and his practice brought him fair remuneration, but it did
not occupy all of his time, and his evenings at home and on
circuit, when not in conference with client or associate
counsel, were employed in the preparation of lectures, by
the delivery of which he could add to his income for the
support of his family and to pay debts incurred before the
courts were fairly opened. Some of these lectures were
eloquent, and exhibited much literary skill, and they were
all interesting and instructive. One, on "The Scattered Na-
tion," suggested, doubtless, by the high qualities he ob-
served in some of his Jewish friends and neighbors in
Statesville and Charlotte, gave him real fame as a lecturer,
and was delivered with great acceptability to Jew and Gen-
tile, by request, in different parts of the country, North and
South. One, on the "Demagogue," in the derivative sense
of the word, as a leader of the people, should be in print.
It contains a very amusing account of the experiences of an
enterprising canvasser for Congress, doubtless his own,
and some excellent lessons to public speakers as to the use
of illustrations and anecdotes in popular speeches. His anec-
dotes were so amusing that they were, after every speech,
widely circulated; and not to repeat well-known stories he
must either have had a wonderfully large repertory or have
manufactured many of them for the occasion.
Governor Vance was accustomed, on account of having
devoted so much of his time to other things than the law, to
speak lightly, with his friends, of his accomplishments as
. 119 •
APPENDIX D
a lawyer; but he was well-grounded in legal principles, and
his sense of justice was so strong, and he was so quick to
apprehend a point suggested by Judge or counsel, that his
client's cause seldom suffered from his want of technical
knowledge; and his influence with the juries was more than
sufficient to make up for any deficiency in that direction.
An opponent in some of his cases, himself an able and suc-
cessful lawyer, said, after some of Vance's triumphs, that
a law ought to be passed by the Legislature denying the last
speech to Vance before a Mecklenburg jury. His quickness
and knowledge of human nature made him very skilful in
examination of witnesses, while by unexpected repartee, by
apt illustration and mirthful stories, he often upset the de-
corum of the Court and convulsed jurors and bystanders.
Elected to the Senate about the last of November, 1878,
and January, 1885, and January, 1891, he served his State
and country in that great field of labor from the day he was
sworn in in March, 1879, until stricken down by disease,
a short time before his death in April, 1894. How he served,
how he labored, how he bore himself in the hard-fought bat-
tles of those fifteen years, against open enemy or insidious
foe; how vigilant he was to protect the liberties of the people
and defend the fair name of his own constituents and their
brethren of the South; how by incessant toil, day and night,
which caused him the loss of an eye and then shortened his
days, he mastered the great questions of the tariff and fi-
nance and became the recognized leader of his party on
those questions; how he used the battle-axe of logic or the
scimitar of irony and wit, with equal ease, as exigency de-
manded; how by courage, candor, and sincerity, in all he
said and did, on the floor and in committee-rooms, he com-
manded the respect and confidence of all honest adver-
saries, and undoubting support of his followers; how by
kindly, if bluff, courtesy and merry jest, in lobby and cloak-
. 120-
APPENDIX D
room, he overcame the prejudice of Northern Senators, and
made personal friends of political opponents, how he en-
livened the dullest debates by unexpected sallies, neat epi-
grams, and witty illustrations; how his arguments were so
interesting that the seats were better filled when he spoke
than when others had the floor, and how crowded galleries
hung upon his words; how his weight and influence in the
councils of his party, in the House as well as the Senate,
were ever growing; how his solemn words as he spoke
for the last time, September 1, 1893, from his place in
the Senate Chamber, warning the people of the country
against the encroachments of the money power and its al-
lies, sounded through the land like the tones of a fire-bell
at night, are all part of the history of the times.
The eulogies of him, as orator, statesman, and man, pro-
nounced ten months after his death, and in words well
weighed, by leading men of both parties, are sufficient to
satisfy his most ardent friends, and justify me fully in say-
ing that in the opinion of his fellows he stood in the fore-
front of the great men of the country, and that in him passed
away the most interesting personality of our day.
It is said "that the greatness of most men diminishes with
the distance." That it was not so with Vance, among his
intimate friends and in his own home, I think I have shown.
That it was not so among his neighbors in Charlotte, where
he so long lived, and that they could not have been party or
privy to the little estrangement alluded to, conclusively ap-
pears from an account given by the Charlotte Observer of
his last public appearance in that city. It was on the evening
of November 1, 1892, and the occasion was that Mr. Ham,
a distinguished Georgia orator and wit, by invitation, ad-
dressed the citizens in the largest auditorium of the city.
At the conclusion of his speech, "Vance! Vance!" was the
sound which burst continuously from the immense audi-
. 121 •
APPENDIX D
ence, as the applause for Mr. Ham subsided, and as the
noble, loved "Zeb" arose, the people went wild; old men,
young men, women and children, jumped to their feet,
waving handkerchiefs and hats, and cheering until the very-
building seemed to rock. Not a person in the house remained
seated. Many stood on the benches; hats were thrown up,
and such an expression of love, affection, and esteem was
never shown to any son of North Carolina at any time or
anywhere, as was expressed in the great ovation over Vance.
On the rostrum every man rose, and following Mr. Ham's
lead, all waved their handkerchiefs and cheered for fully
ten minutes. It was a great demonstration, and one that did
honor even to the loved Senator. As he stood on the ros-
trum, amid the deafening cheers of his people, he looked
like a grand chieftan leading his people, and guiding them
simply by his presence. It was a scene the like of which was
never seen in Charlotte before.
Born May 13, 1830, and dying April 14, 1894, how
much of labor well done, of duty well performed, of glory
nobly achieved, in those sixty-four years of mortal life! In
the admiration and gratitude of his State he will continue
to live as long as North Carolina shall be a State! And in
that other life, the higher life, he will live, we fondly trust,
to all eternity, in that home prepared by Him who says to
every son of man who has done his duty here: "Well done,
thou good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of
thy Lord."
Literary and Historical Activities in North Carolina, 1900-1905 (Ra-
leigh, 1907).
.122-
APPENDIX E
Unveiling of Statue at Statuary Hall
The statue of Zebulon B. Vance was unveiled in Statuary
Hall in the Capitol in Washington in 1916. Four addresses
were delivered in Statuary Hall, three in the Senate, and nine
in the House of Representatives. Here are excerpts from the
address of Locke Craig, Governor of North Carolina:
ADDRESS OF HON. LOCKE CRAIG
And now, Mr. President [turning to the Vice President],
the State of North Carolina presents through you to the
United States the statue of Zebulon Baird Vance. This
is done by authority of a resolution of the General Assem-
bly of North Carolina passed without dissent. The recogni-
tion of Vance as the greatest of our men, and the placing
of his statue in this pantheon of the Nation, is but the execu-
tion of the judgment of all of the people of North Carolina.
His personality, his character, and his deeds confer upon
him the right to stand here, a peer among the foremost of
the Republic.
Our State has not been in a hurry to occupy the two
places assigned to her in this hall. In preferring Vance
as the first, she has been mindful of her obligation to con-
sider with justice all of her noble sons. And she has realized,
too, her obligation to do justice to herself. This statue shall
be a perpetual memorial of him and of her. The State must
be judged by the best that she can produce. He is our most
precious gift to the world. Since we have set him up as the
finest conception and expression of North Carolina life, he
must be the standard by which this and coming generations
shall measure the significance and worth of the State.
He was a son of North Carolina, bone of her bone, and
flesh of her flesh. He was born and reared among the moun-
tains, and was of Scotch-Irish lineage, but his sympathies
. 123 •
APPENDIX E
were not limited by sectional lines nor by the dogmas of
creeds. Wherever he went, among all classes and conditions
of men, from the humblest to the greatest, he was primus
inter pares, and exemplified the universal brotherhood. In
fashionable salons, among scholars and statesmen, he was
simple, natural, brilliant, easily the center. With the same
unpretentious manner, on terms of perfect equality he
charmed the men in working clothes, with rough hands,
and was loved by them as their wiser and stronger brother,
whose fidelity could never be doubted. He taught dignity
to nobility. He was "a legist among the lawyers, a sidereal
among the astronomers."
Vance was trusted and honored and loved by the people
of North Carolina as no other man has been. He was elected
and reelected to the places of highest honor. He was vested
with the greatest trust and called in every crisis to do the
foremost part. From the time that he was 30 years old
until the day of his death at the age of 64 he was the un-
rivaled leader. Faith in his loyalty and prowess never fal-
tered.
Preeminent merit is not always the necessary prerequi-
site to high official position, but for 30 years, in times of
war and revolution, disaster and suffering, Vance was the
chosen champion of the people. He declared their policies.
He voiced their highest aspirations. He was always in the
fiercest of the conflict to meet and to overcome with blow
for blow the mightiest that opposed. He was the voice of the
State, the incarnation of her passion, her hopes, her de-
termination, and her purpose. He was the leader to call
her to duty, to rescue her victoriously from ruin and strife
into the way of peace and to point her to a triumphant des-
tiny. This entitles him to a place among the immortals.
In 1879 Vance took his seat in the Senate of the United
States. The volcanic force and fire of the period of storm
• 124.
APPENDIX E
and revolution subsided into the calm and clear strength
and dignity of the Senator. At no period in our history have
there been so many men in the Senate of power and accom-
plished statesmanship. Every State sent her strongest men.
The floor of the Senate was the arena of intellectual giants.
There were Blaine, of Maine; Edmunds and Morrill, of
Vermont; Hoar, of Massachusetts; Conkling, of New York;
Bayard, of Delaware; Ransom, of North Carolina; Hamp-
ton, of South Carolina; Benjamin Hill, of Georgia; Morgan,
of Alabama; Lamar, of Mississippi; Blackburn, of Ken-
tucky; Vest, of Missouri; Voorhees, of Indiana; Thurman,
of Ohio; Ingalls, of Kansas. In this great company Vance
was recognized as the equal of any, an intellectual gladiator
who never lowered his arm, a statesman who dedicated him-
self to labor and to the service of the State and of the whole
Nation. He mastered the problems of his time, and added to
his national fame. His speeches gave evidence, not only of
his known ability, but of classic culture. In debates on the
policies and fundamental questions of controlling impor-
tance he was generally put forward as the spokesman of his
party. He was by constitution and by culture a democrat.
He was the unrelenting foe of unjust privilege of all kinds,
the apostle of equal rights. He delivered the faith that is
now the creed of Democracy. For half a century the advo-
cates of political dogmas have conjured with his name, or
tried to conjure with it.
There was nothing of the demagogue about Vance. He
was nearly always on the popular side, but often by his
own genius he made his side popular. He was one of those
men of genius of universal type. He was one of the people,
in full accord and sympathy with them. His single purpose
was the common good, with a passion for justice and against
unfairness and oppression. Gen. Theodore F. Davidson, a
kinsman of Vance, who knew him perhaps more intimately
than any living man, says of him:
. 125 ■
• APPENDIX E •
Another characteristic particularly in public matters,
was his capacity to divine the right; it seemed to me that
with less effort than any public man of whom I have any
knowledge, he could almost instantly comprehend a pub-
lic question with its results, by intuition. This quality
was an endowment of nature, developed and strengthened
by the circumstances of his unusual career.
Another distinguishing characteristic which made him
the first of the "leaders of men," was his absolute devotion
to that which he believed to be the best for his country and
his people. I do not believe there ever was a moment in
his life when he was not perfectly willing to offer himself
and all he had for the benefit of his countrymen without
the slightest consideration whether it brought to him com-
pensation in any form.
If you strike the chord of a musical instrument in the
midst of other musical instruments, all of the chords that
are in perfect harmony will vibrate with the same rhythm.
Vance was in harmony with the people. The same causes
that stirred them stirred him. He uttered the dominant note.
His vision was farther and clearer. His conception stronger.
He expressed what they vaguely felt, and what they had
been longing to hear, and he gave tone and unity to their
thought, their aspirations, and their life.
• . .
Vance never quailed nor bowed the knee to power.
When he was down, when his enemies were in control and
his future seemed darkest he wrote the following letter:
To the Editor of the New York World:
I see by the public prints that Gen. Kilpatrick has dec-
orated me with his disapprobation before the people of
Pennsylvania. He informs them, substantially, that he
tamed me by capturing me and riding me 200 miles on
a bareback mule. I will do him the justice to say that he
knew that was a lie when he uttered it.
I surrendered to Gen. Schofield at Greensboro, N. C,
on the 2d day of May, 1865, who told me to go to my
home and remain there, saying that if he got any orders
. 126 •
. APPENDIX E •
to arrest me he would send there for me. Accordingly I
went home, and there remained until I was arrested on
the 13th of May by a detachment of 300 Cavalry, under
Maj. Porter, of Harrisburg, from whom I received noth-
ing but kindness and courtesy. I came in a buggy to Salis-
bury, where we took the cars.
I saw no mule on the trip, yet I thought I saw an ass at
the general's headquarters; this impression has since been
confirmed.
Respectfully, yours,
Z.B.Vance.
His humor was inimitable; it was spontaneous. Audi-
ences were convulsed with laughter by his witticisms and
his stories; but his humor was always an incident. It al-
ways illustrated. It was always used for a purpose. It was
overwhelming and brought his antagonist irresistibly into
ridicule. When the southern leaders in Congress were ac-
cused of disloyalty, he said:
What motive have we to injure this country? Having
surrendered the doctrine of secession and abandoned any
intention whatsoever to divide this Union, how could we
expect that the democracy to which we belong could ob-
tain and hold the control of the Government except by
showing the people by our acts that we are patriotically
desirous of promoting its welfare and its glory. But you
say you distrust these expressions. My friends, in your
hearts you do not. On the contrary, a man who has of-
fered his blood once for his plighted faith you believe
when he plights his faith again. There is not a southern
rebel, no matter how bitter and rampant he may have
been, that you have not received with arms widespread
and rewarded with offices of honor and trust who came
to you with craven repentance on his tongue, ready to
vote the Republican ticket and eating dirt with the same
gluttonous appetite with which he once ate fire. You pro-
fess to believe him, but you despise him in your hearts.
You are not alarmed to receive him and you cast no sus-
picion upon his professions of sincerity, though, as has
more than once happened, he asks you to believe he tells
the truth to-day because he told a lie yesterday.
- 127 •
. APPENDIX E •
His personal appearance was unique. He did not look like
other men. No man who saw him ever forgot him. His mag-
netism charmed with a peculiar and indescribable power.
When you looked upon him, you knew that you beheld the
lion-hearted leader of men.
When known and understood, men of all parties ad-
mired and honored him for his convictions, his courage, his
kindness of heart, his abiding loyalty and devotion to the
whole country.
When he died the State was awed into a solemnity that
we had not known. It was realized that the foremost had
fallen. The train bearing him for the last time to the bosom
of the mountains that bore him and nurtured him passed
through the State while the assembled people with uncov-
ered heads bowed and wept. Meetings were held in almost
every county in expression of universal sorrow. The State
was his funeral cortege.
No hollow formalist was he, deceptive and self-decep-
tive, ghastly to the natural sense, but a very man, fiery,
real, from the great fire bosom of nature herself.
United States Congress, 64th, 1st Session, Proceedings in Statuary
Hall, U.S. Senate and House of Representatives Upon Unveiling of
Statue of Zebulon B. Vance (Washington, 1917).
. 128 •
. APPENDIX E •
THE SCULPTOR
GUTZON BORGLUM
Born in Idaho, March 25, 1867; son of Dr. James de la
Mothe Borglum and Ida (Michelson) Borglum. Educated
in the public schools of Fremont and Omaha, Nebr., and
at St. Mary's College, Kans. Studied art in San Francisco,
and went to Paris in 1890, working and studying in Aca-
demie Julien and Ecole des Beaux Arts. Exhibited as
painter and sculptor in Paris Salon, in Spain in 1892, and
in California in 1893-94; returned East and went to Lon-
don in 1896, remaining there and in Paris until 1901. Has
been in New York City since 1902. Exhibited in Paris in
1896 and 1901; held successful "one-man" exhibit in Lon-
don; received gold medal for sculpture at Louisiana Pur-
chase Exposition. Was sculptor for work on Cathedral of
St. John the Divine, New York; Sheridan Equestrian Mon-
ument in Washington, D. C; colossal marble head of
Lincoln and the statue of Zebulon Baird Vance in the
Capitol Building; figure of America on American Repub-
lics Building; Mares of Diomedes (bronze), Metropolitan
Museum, New York; The Atlas (marble) , New York, etc.
Member Royal Society of British Artists, Societe National
des Beaux Arts, and Architectural League. Clubs: Metro-
politan (Washington, D. C), Players, Camp Fire, Lotos,
Fencers, City, and Balsam Lake Club, New York.
.129-
APPENDIX F
Address at Dedication of Monument
at Asheville
The monument in memory of Zebulon B. Vance on Pack
Square in Asheville, North Carolina, was dedicated on May 10,
1898. An address was delivered by R. L. Taylor, Governor of
Tennessee. Here are excerpts from his address:
ADDRESS OF HON. R. L. TAYLOR
. . . Never again will his people be entranced by his elo-
quence, nor the enraptured multitudes listen to the music
of his voice. Never again will solemn Senators turn away
from their dignity to delight in the glow of his genial spirit.
The warmth of joy has departed from his lips; the star that
once shed glory upon the old North state has set forever.
A coffin, a winding-sheet, six feet by two of Mother Earth,
a monument, and precious memories are all that is left of
the orator and actor, the humanitarian, the statesman and
patriot. ... It would be presumptuous folly in me to parade
in your presence to-day the noble traits of his character and
the thrilling events of his life, which have enriched the his-
tory of his state and made his name immortal. They are
thoroughly known to you all.
When I was a barefooted boy romping among the hills
of Tennessee the news of his fame and the tidings of his
marvelous campaigns used to come floating over the moun-
tains. The boys heard his yarns, and rolled on the floor
with merriment; the old ladies sat at the fireside and cackled
at his anecdotes, and the sturdy old farmers listened to his
stories in the fields, and stopped their plows to laugh.
No power ever checked the triumphal march of the youth-
ful mountaineer to the glorious destiny which awaited him.
• 130-
APPENDIX F
No political foe ever withstood his wit and humor and logic
and his matchless eloquence. They were his passports to
the Legislature and to Congress while yet a youth in his
twenties, and as he grew older his powers developed. His
popularity was unparalleled, his influence was invincible.
Through all his long and brilliant career his love for hu-
manity never waned and his devotion to his country never
cooled— always ready with a charming story to tell, always
quick at repartee. And yet his logic was as convincing as
the sword of Stonewall Jackson at Manassas or as the guns
of Dewey at Manila. He was as honest as Davis, humorous
as Lincoln, eloquent as Daniels, as true to the hopes that
perished at Appomattox as Gordon and Forrest, and after-
ward as loyal to the Union as Wheeler and Lee, who now
wear the blue.
Senator Vance was a splendid thinker and a statesman
of rare ability, but he always looked on the bright side of
things, and no music was half so sweet to him as the songs
and laughter of the merry throngs of country folks who
gathered about him on every occasion with shouts and
hallelujahs to while away the happy hours. And thus his
busy life was spent in adding to the sum of human happi-
ness. ... I would rather trust my life and liberty in the
hands of a laughing fool than in the hands of a frowning
tyrant. Nations do not suffer when their rulers sincerely
smile and govern with love and mercy; but God pity the
land whose ruler frowns and rules with an iron rod, and
God pity the ruler himself, for the harvest of his frowns is
death! . . .
The life of Washington eclipses the glory of Caesar, and
the beautiful reign of Victoria outshines the romantic record
of Napoleon's rise and fall
Laughter and love and hope and happiness are the com-
panions of pleasure, the patrons and allies of civilization,
the handmaids of religion, the evangels of God.
Senator Vance lived and loved and laughed and labored
. 131 .
APPENDIX F
for his people and for humanity. He planted the flowers of
mirth and joy in the hearts of others, and labored on until
the winter of age whitened his head with the snow that
never melts. But there was no snow upon his heart: it was
always summer there.
Confederate Veteran, Vol. 6, No. 5, Nashville, Tenn., May, 1898, p. 198.
. 132 •
Selected Bibliography
Barrett, John G. The Civil War in North Carolina. (Chapel Hill, N. C,
1963).
Camp, Cordelia. Governor Vance: A Life For Young People. ( Asheville,
N. C, 1961).
Cannon, Elizabeth R., editor. My Beloved Zebulon. (Chapel Hill, N. C,
1971).
Claiborne, Jack, and Price, William, editors. Discovering North Caro-
lina. (Chapel Hill, N. C, 1991).
Coates, Albert. Three North Carolinians Who Have Stood Up To Be
Counted for the Bill of Rights. (Chapel Hill, N. C, 1973).
Cooper, Richard. Zeb Vance: Leader in War and Peace. (Raleigh, N. C,
1985).
Dowd, Clement. Life of Zebulon B. Vance. (Charlotte, N. C, 1897) .
Johnston, Frontis W., editor. The Papers of Zebulon B. Vance. (Ra-
leigh, N. C, 1963).
Kratt, Mary Norton. Charlotte - Spirit of the New South. (Winston-
Salem, N. C, 1992).
Lefler, Hugh T., and Newsome, Albert R. North Carolina: The History
of a Southern State. (Chapel Hill, N. C, 1954) .
North Carolina Historical Commission. Literary and Historical Activ-
ities. 1900-1905. Contains the address of Richard H. Battle de-
livered at unveiling of Vance statue in Capitol Square, Raleigh,
N. C, in 1900.
Phillips, Russell. Hooray for Vance! American Mercury XXII, 1931.
Reed, Thomas B., editor. Modern Eloquence. (Philadelphia, Pa., 1900) .
Sandburg, Carl. Abraham Lincoln: The War Tears. 4 Volumes. (New
York, 1939).
Shirley, Frank Ray. Zebulon Vance, Tarheel Spokesman. (Charlotte,
N. C, 1962) .
Shurter, Edwin DuBois, editor. Oratory of the South. (New York, 1908).
Speizman, Morris. The Jews of Charlotte. (Charlotte, N. C, 1978).
Szittya, Ruth O. Man to Match the Mountains: The Childhood of Zeb-
ulon B. Vance. (Asheville, N. C, 1980).
Tucker, Glenn. Zeb Vance: Champion of Personal Freedom. (Indianap-
olis, Ind., 1965).
United States Congress, 53rd, 3rd Session, Memorial Addresses on Life
and Character of Zebulon B. Vance. (Washington, D. C, 1895).
United States Congress, 64th, 1st Session. Proceedings in Statuary Hall,
• 133 •
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY •
U.S. Senate and House of Representatives upon unveiling of Statue
of Zebulon B. Vance. (Washington, D. C, 1917).
Vance, Zebulon B. The Scattered Nation. (New York, 1904).
Vance, Zebulon B. The Scattered Nation. (New York, 1916).
Vance, Zebulon B. The Scattered Nation. (Raleigh, N. C, 1928).
Walser, Richard. Tar Heel Laughter. (Chapel Hill, N. C, 1974).
Womble, Iris W. Zeb Vance: Tarheel Tribune. (Florida, 1949).
Yates, Richard E. The Confederacy and Zeb Vance. (Tuscaloosa, Ala.,
1958).
. 134-
Index
A
Abraham, 69
Adler, Selig, viii, 19, 20, 24, 37
Alexander, 97
American Jewish Times, 56
Appomattox, 17, 131
Arabs, 23
Asheville, N.C., x, 9, 20, 24, 29,
30, 31, 38, 116, 130
Asheville, Obelisk, 31
Asher and Company, 43
Assyrians, 66
Avery, William W., 10
Aycock, Charles B., 31
B
Babylonians, 66
Baird, Mira Margaret, 8
Battle, Kemp P., 9
Battle, Richard H., 9, 11, 114
Black Mountain, 29
Blockade running, 15
Blum, D., 43
B'nai B'rith, 24, 25, 55, 56, 60n
Boone, Daniel, 6
Borglum, Gutzon, 129
Brank, Priscilla, 8
Bryant, William Cullen, 50
C
Calvary Episcopal Church, 24
Carson, Samuel B., 6
Caesar, 97
Central Conference of American
Rabbis, 24
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library,
viii
Charlotte Grays, 42
Charlotte Observer, 97, 121
Charlotte, N.C., 4, 13, 15, 19, 20,
25, 28, 30, 41, 42, 97, 119, 121
Christianity, 21, 68
Chronology, xiii
Cicero, 7
Cleveland, Grover, President, 29,
30
Clingman, Thomas Lanier, 10
Confederate States Navy Yard, 15
Cohen, E. B., 42
Coleman, David, 10
Conservative Party, 13
Craig, Locke, Governor, 4, 31,
123
Crockett, Davy, 6
Cromwell, Oliver, 22
Cyrus, 97
D
Davidson College, 8
Davidson, Theodore F., General,
125
Davidson, John Springs, 101
Davis, Jefferson, President of
Confederacy, 15, 16, 17, 18, 38
Dead Sea, 77
Democratic Party, 10
Dominicans, 21
Dooley, Tom, 4
Dowd, Clement, 46, 97, 119
Drucker, Levi, 42
E
Ecclesiastes, vii
Egyptians, 66, 69
Ellis, John W., Governor, 12
Elias and Cohen, 43
Espy, Harriet N., 46
. 135 •
•INDEX-
F
Fayetteville Colored Normal
School, 27
First North Carolina Regiment, 42
First Presbyterian Church, viii
Fort Fisher, 17
Fort Sumter, 12
Franciscans, 21
Frankenthal, S., 43
Frederick the Great, Court
Chaplain of, 65
G
Graham, William A., 12, 17
Grand Army of the Republic, 46
Grant, Ulysses S., General, 18
Gulf Stream, 63
Germany, 87
Greeks, 70
H
Habeas corpus, 15, 16
Hannibal, 97
H. & B. Emanuel, 43
Hellenistic thought, 70
Hirshinger, J., 44
Hoke, Robert, General, 17
Holden, William W., 13, 16, 17
Holocaust, 22
Holy Bible, 7
I
Ishmael, 69
Israel, State of, 23
J
Jackson, Andrew, President, 8,
131
Jerusalem, 71, 77
Jews, 19, 23, 64, 98
Johnston, Frontis W., 8
Johnson, Andrew, President, 18
Jones, Hamilton C., 99
Jefferson, Thomas, President, 112
Josephus, 20, 70
Journal of Southern History, viii,
37
K
Kahnweiler Brothers, 43
Karaites, 80
Kilpatrick, Hugh J., General, 40
Koopman, B., 43
L
Lebanon, 77
Lee, Robert E., General, 5, 17,
118
Lincoln, Abraham, President, 12,
16, 18
M
Macaulay, 66, 91
Machiavelli, 20, 72
Malvern Hill, Battle of, 13
Mecklenburg Declaration of
Independence, 28
Madison, James, President, 112
Martin, Florence Steele, 48
Memorial Ceremonies, 30, 97, 100
Merriman, Augustus, 10, 13
Miller, Dr. Arnold De Welles, 47
N
Napoleon, 67
New Bern, Battle of, 13
O
Old Capitol Prison, 19
Old Testament, 47, 51
P
Palestine, 64
Pontiffs, 68
Presbyterian Church, First, 20,
47, 48, 98
Protestants, 23
R
Raleigh, 112, 117
Ransom, Matt W. Senator, 105
Reichenberg, N., 43
Reynolds, Daniel, 10
Rintels, Jacob, 42
Romans, 66
Rothschild, 84
Russia, 22, 23
S
Saluda Gap, 6
Scattered Nation, The, 19, 46, 48,
50, 51, 53, 63, 98, 119
. 136 •
•INDEX-
Scott, Walter, Sir, 7
Schenk, Judge David, 5
Schofield, J. M., Major General,
18, 38
Secession, North Carolina, 13
Sergeant Bothwell, 87
Settle, Thomas, 26
Shakespeare, 7
Sherman, William Tecumseh,
General, 17, 38
Shirley, Franklin Ray, 19
Socrates, 20, 70
Southern Historical Society, 47
Stanton, Edwin M., Secretary of
War, 41
Statesville, 17, 18, 20, 38
Statue of Vance— Statuary Hall,
31, 123
Statue of Vance— Raleigh, 31
Straus, Nathan, 24, 25
Stuart, J. E. B. General, 5, 118
Swain, David L., 7, 9, 17, 117
Syrians, 66
T
Tacitus, 7
Taylor, R. L. Governor, 130
Tillett, C. W., 101
U
United Daughters of the
Confederacy, 24
University of North Carolina, 7, 8,
9,45
V
Vance County, 3 1
Vance, David I, 8
Vance, David II, 6
Vance, Margaret Baird, 46
Vance Museum, 19, 24
Vance, Dr. Robert B., 6
Vance, Statuary Hall, 31
Vance, Statue of, Raleigh, 114
Vance, Zebulon B.,
Eloquence, 4
Heritage, 8
Political Career, 10
The War Governor, 13
"The Scattered Nation," 19
Jewish Tributes, 23
Governor Again, 25
United States Senator, 27
Outpouring of Grief, 29
Vatican Council II, 23
W
Wake Forest College,
Commencement, 1872, 7
Walker, Felix, 6
Wallace, Isaac and David, 39
Warren, Dr. Edward, 5, 14
Washington, George, President,
112
Whig Party, 10
Wilmington, 15, 17
Wise, Rabbi Stephen S., 25
Wittkowsky, Samuel, 40, 54, 98
Williamson, Clark M., 21, 33n
Woodfin, John W., 9
.137-
PERMISSIONS
Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to quote from
the following works:
Abraham Lincoln: The War Tears (1939) by Carl Sandburg,
by permission from Harcourt, Brace Co.
The Civil War in North Carolina (1963) by John D. Barrett,
by permission from University of North Carolina Press.
The Friars and the Jews ( 1982) by Jeremy Cohen, by permis-
sion from Cornell University Press.
Has God Rejected His People? (1982) by Clark M. William-
son, published by Abingdon Press. Permission granted by Clark
M. Williamson.
Zebulon Vance, Tarheel Spokesman (1962) by Franklin Ray
Shirley, by permission of Heritage Printers, Inc., successor to
McNally & Loftin.
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